Days Of The Returning Ghosts
by skycloud86
Summary: AU. Set on Day Three and a year or so after Day Eight.
1. On The Third Day

_**A/N – This chapter starts during Day Three, and involves a slightly revised version of the day's events. This is a oneshot story and doesn't affect any other fanfiction of mine.**_

**1.31am, CTU Los Angeles**

Chloe O'Brien had never experienced such a day, and as far as she could tell, this day was far from over. She had only worked at CTU Los Angeles for a short time, but had hoped that she wouldn't have to face such a major threat so soon – the events of a few years before had been repeated to her by numerous CTU agents and employees, even though she had never asked any of them to do so. Sighing quietly as she walked briskly down a dark corridor towards Tech One, eager to stop the worm that Nina Myers had planted in their system and also eager not to let someone else beat her at anything even remotely connected to computers, she didn't notice that someone was following close behind, until that person knocked against an exposed pipe as they tried to keep quiet. Stopping for a moment, and turning around slightly, Chloe narrowed her eyes and examined the shadows.

"Is there anyone there? I don't have time to be playing games, whoever you are!," Chloe snapped, before turning around and continuing her hasty walk towards her destination, and she had almost turned the corner into the well-lit area around Tech One, when a hammer was brought down hard onto the back of her head, sending her crashing to the ground. The attacker and would be murderer of Chloe O'Brien then dragged her body into a deep alcove, took a deep breath and smashed the hammer down as hard as they could into her head once more. Listening out for any breathing – or anyone likely to discover the grisly scene – the attacker left the alcove quickly, disposing of the hammer into the air vents. As her blood pooled around her body, Chloe's eyes stared at nothing.

In Tech One, Adam Kaufmann was distracted from his own work of trying to defeat the worm, looking over at the door and waiting for Chloe to walk through it. Although he found her to be a pain in the ass as well as a rather anti-social person, he respected her work and talent with computers immensely, and he was concerned that if Chloe wasn't in the room soon, the worm would complete it's purpose, leaving hundreds of undercover CTU agents at risk. Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the phone and dialed Tony's extension.

"Tony, where's Chloe? We're losing time!," Adam spoke as soon as Tony replied, his voice loud and stressed, his eyes fixed on the door.

"She's not there yet? She left the bullpen ten minutes ago, she should be there now. You've checked that she's not in any other room, right?," Tony replied, his own eyes panning across the large, busy bullpen. Noticing a guard with a shocked look on his face, he asked Adam to hang on, curious as to what the guard wanted. Walking up close to Tony, the guard seemed eager not to broadcast his news.

"Director Almeida, can you come with me, please?," The guard spoke with a Seattle accent, and nervously ran his fingers through the mousy brown hair that framed his thin face.

Sat at his desk, Alex Myers watched the guard and Tony leave the bullpen, and he took a deep breath. The worm was minutes away from succeeding, and Nina was minutes away from either being freed back in Mexico, or brought back to CTU and a high risk of being killed. He gazed at the blank screen of his computer, and tried to think of what his options were. If Nina were to be let loose in Mexico, it was a certainty that Jack would go after her almost immediately after the threat was over. If she was brought back to CTU, then anything might happen. He looked over at Kim and wondered what was going through her mind. Jack had been able to get her a job at CTU to keep her safe, and only months after starting she was doing well in the midst of a crisis that involved the killer of her mother.

Tony's hand was placed over his mouth, his eyes wide and full of the same shock that he had seen in the guard's eyes back in the bullpen. He was looking down at the corpse of Chloe O'Brien, and for a fleeting moment he forgot about the virus, about Nina, about the worm. Removing his hand from his face and bending down, he gently closed Chloe's eyes.

"We'll find out who did this, Chloe. I promise you," he whispered.

**1.45am, Jack and Nina's plane, above Southern California**

"What?," Jack rasped into the phone as Tony informed him of Chloe's death. Unable to believe it, he sank into a seat close to Nina, who was watching with some curiosity. She had heard Jack speak only one word during the conversation, and she could only guess as to what the call was about, and as Jack hung up, he stared at the opposite wall of the plane, and Nina debated with herself whether to ask about it or not. It didn't matter anyway, as Jack noticed her gazing at him.

"If you don't stop that worm right now, Nina, I swear I will kill you right here, no matter what," Jack whispered, staring straight at her as he spoke. She frowned, before turning away and looking at the laptop. Seconds later, she turned back to face Jack, who looked ready to jump out of his seat and beat her to death.

"What was the call about, Jack?," Nina asked, and realised that it was a mistake as Jack did indeed leap up out of his seat, before grabbing hold of her neck.

"Someone inside CTU murdered Chloe O'Brien, a good agent as well as a good friend of mine. Now, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you Nina?," Jack spoke with his face close to hers and his hand tight around her neck, his voice low and threatening. The look on her face convinced him that she didn't, but he still held on to her.

"Jack, whoever did it wasn't doing it for me, I promise! Look, we can still both get what we want out of this," Nina spoke, her voice affected by his hand crushing her throat.

"Nina, right now I need you to stop that worm, and then maybe we'll see about what you want out of this!," he spoke, before a bleeping sound from the laptop caught his attention. Letting go of her neck, he left her to recover as he turned around and saw the message on the screen. Yelling in anger, he smashed the laptop off of the makeshift table, sending it crashing to the floor. Turning around, his eyes wildly staring at Nina.

"Do you realise...do you REALISE what you've done, Nina?," Jack snarled, and Nina decided that she needed to calm him down. She noticed Chase Edmunds walk up to Jack, but even he seemed fearful of Jack. As Jack sat down next to chase, he was amused by the look on Chase's face and smirked. Turning around, he saw Nina holding the laptop and typing away quickly, hoping that she had been scared enough to stop her worm.

**1.55am, CTU Los Angeles**

Tony had just gathered the agents and staff together in the bullpen to inform them of Chloe's death, and as he gave them the news, he looked around the crowd, at each of the faces. If he could just spot a flicker of guilt, or a look of shame on one of the people he was stood in front of, he would at least be able to consider that person a suspect, but he noticed nothing. He had no reason to suspect anyone, as well as having no idea if the killer was even still in the building. As the crowd dispersed and people went back to their stations, all Tony could do was await any news from Forensics, who were busy scouring the crime scene.

Alex looked at Tony over his computer monitor, and was wondering whether there would be any evidence found of the killer, before noticing his screen flicking back on. It looked, as far as he could tell, that the worm had been shut down. He had no idea if Nina was either on her way back to Mexico, or back to CTU.

**2.00am, Jack and Nina's plane**

Nina sighed quietly as Jack and Chase conversed quietly elsewhere in the plane. She had to stop her worm seconds before it could have done the damage she really wanted it to do, and worst of all, it appeared as if she was on her way back to CTU. She couldn't help but wonder who had killed that O'Brien woman, and if it had anything to do with her and her worm. Seeing Jack walk up to her, she wanted to roll her eyes but decided against it. Handing Jack the laptop, she looked up at him with a look of anger and hatred that she knew he would never have dreamt of seeing just a few years before. Back then they had been the best of friends, but now they had travelled straight to the extreme opposite, and were now deep enemies

"We're taking you back to CTU, Nina. If you tell us where Alvers and Amador are, I'll consider getting you some sort of deal. Is that understood?," Jack spoke, his voice calm. She looked up and nodded, knowing that she had to wait for the next opportunity, something that she wasn't going to find stuck on a plane high in the sky. As Jack turned around and left her alone once more, she juggled the information she had received about CTU since the surprise and mutually unwanted reunion with Jack at the auction. She knew that they would want to interrogate her – and probably torture her as well – and considered what sort of deal she would get from Jack. Nina, not being foolish, knew that any deal from Jack would involve a lengthy stay in jail anyway, leaving her a sitting duck for anyone coming after her to make sure that she couldn't give up too much of her intel. It would be better, she reasoned, to be free and at least be able to move around and avoid any would-be attackers.

As Jack sat down, he examined the laptop and allowed himself a small smile as he saw that Nina had indeed stopped the worm. He had taken a risk by leaving her alone with the laptop and no instruction to stop her worm, but he knew Nina enough to know that she would do what was in her best interests, and Jack had made sure that at that moment in time, turning off her worm was certainly in her best interests, and more importantly for Jack, the interests of CTU and their small army of undercover agents.

**2.05am, CTU Los Angeles**

Tony had confirmed that Jack and Nina's plane was coming to Los Angeles, and that Nina would be interrogated at CTU, and Alex realised that Nina was running out of time. He felt helpless and had no idea what he could do to prevent Jack from killing his sister, and he certainly had no way of stopping that plane from landing or Jack from bringing Nina in. Taking a quick glance over at Kim, he considered the possibility of Kim coming face to face with her mother's killer for the first time in over four years.

Kim herself was nervously waiting for her father to return to CTU. It was bad enough that he was out in the field risking his life without the fact that he and her boyfriend were in the same plane as Nina Myers. It had been a terrible night, made even worse by Chloe's shocking murder, and she wondered if the murderer was amongst the numerous people working around her, as well as why had they killed Chloe. Certain that it was because of the worm, Kim considered the possibility of there being a mole inside CTU working for Nina, something she dreaded.

Morris O'Brien, Chloe's ex-husband, was with her body in the morgue, a silent tear running down his cheek as he held his former wife's cold hand in his own. His brown eyes were filled with tears, but he was trying hard not to lose it. Although a guard had offered to stay inside the morgue to protect Morris from the murderer, he had politely refused, and the guard was stood outside the morgue.

"God, Chloe, I didn't think you would die before me, sweetheart. I thought the drink would kill me long before, but now I wish I never touched a single drop. I lose you, Chloe, and now I will never find you again, and I don't know what to do, Chloe. I can't do anything to bring you back, I can't do anything to go back in time and stop myself from becoming some pathetic drunk," Morris whispered, before sighing. He closed his eyes for a second, before turning around.

"Goodbye, Chloe. I promise to never go back to the way I was," he spoke, before walking slowly towards the door of the morgue.

Back in the bullpen, all of the attention was on Jack and Nina as they walked through the building towards the holding rooms. Nina stared at Kim as she passed by Jack's daughter, before noticing her brother. Alex was looking at her, and he wondered if Nina could tell something from his face that noone else could, and he hoped that if she did, that she kept quiet.

**2.30am, Holding Room 1**

The interrogation had been going for some time, and Alex had joined Michelle in the surveillance room. He watched as Tony questioned Nina, and he looked directly at Nina's face. She seemed so confident, so defiant and Alex knew that Tony would probably soon be resorting to torture to get the needed information.

"Do you think she knows anything useful?," Michelle asked Alex, her own gaze directed at Tony, who looked stressed, angry and quite probably troubled by thoughts of the day Nina's treachery had been uncovered.

"I don't know," Alex replied, before noticing someone walk in with a silver briefcase, and he knew then that torture was about to be used on Nina. Whether it would be effective was unknown – after her imprisonment, Nina had been tortured numerous times in CTU's attempts to get information from her, but she had given them little by the time of her pardon.

"What sort of deal can we offer her? I can only see us giving her life without parole instead of the death penalty," Michelle spoke. She had seen Jack's face as he told her of Nina's pardon all those years ago, and she knew for a fact that any deal this time would certainly not be anywhere near as generous and, if she was being honest with herself, she thought that Nina would be lucky to get anything other than a short sentence before being executed at the first possible date.

In the bullpen, Kim was watching Nina's interrogation via video link on her computer. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to watch what was going on, and she certainly wasn't enjoying it, but she felt the need to witness it, to hear for herself what Nina said or didn't say. She tried not to look for too long at Nina, but felt herself pulled towards Nina's face, a compulsion to do so overriding her hatred of the woman.

As the needle was pulled slowly out of Nina's neck, she winced quietly and braced herself for the next painful stab. She heard Tony ask her if enough was enough, and she decided that she had to do something quick, something drastic that would disturb them enough to somehow open up a window of opportunity for her to get out of CTU.

"This should be enough," she stated flatly, and forced her head back violently onto the needle, slashing her carotid and causing her to spasm uncontrollably. Horrified, Tony had not expected that. With her blood splattered all over him, he tried to hold her steady, hoping that Nina could be taken to Medical in time. Alex, who was watching the scene with horror behind the mirror, felt helpless as he saw his sister's life beginning to slip away.

Nina was trying desperately to retain conciousness as she listened to the panic around her. She could hear Tony's voice, the noise of quick footsteps as people rushed around her. She could feel the warm hands of some woman holding her, and Nina wondered if the woman knew what she had done, or even who she was. As she was placed onto a stretcher, she looked up at the ceiling with her eyes partially closed. The lights merged together in one fluorescent line as she was briskly moved towards Medical. It was only a short journey, and she was soon inside Medical and soon transferred from the stretcher to a operating table. The noise around her changed from frantic agents to medical talk, and she knew that the agents had all left her. Squeezing the tube that was meant to feed the anaesthetic to her veins, she closed her eyes and waited for them to at least get the bleeding under control. Seconds later, she opened her eyes wide, grabbed at a scalpel and leapt from the table, slashing at every other person in the room. Leaving just one alive, she made her way out of Medical and down a dark corridor.

Alex was now stood close to where Jack was being interviewed, watching the events as he tried to work out what was being said. Suddenly, an alarm began to blare throughout the building, and he knew for sure that Nina had begun her escape attempt. Quickly making his way towards Medical, he could only hope that if she was to caught, that Jack would not get a chance to even lay a finger on her.

"Nina?," Alex called out as he entered Medical slowly, only to find a bloodbath and the bodies of almost all of the medical staff. Soon joined by Tony and Jack, he saw a nurse cowering in the corner of the room. She pointed towards a corridor, and the three headed off after Nina.

Kim looked around as the chaos grew inside CTU, and she realised that her father had gone after Nina. Deciding that she had to do something, she ran into a corridor and began searching for Nina, her CTU issued gun at the ready.

Nina herself was in a room which she knew all too well – it was the room where she had killed Teri Bauer, and now she was pulling away at wires in an attempt to turn off the alarm.

"Nina," Kim spoke quietly but firmly, her gun pointed straight at the older woman, who turned slowly to face her. Smirking, Nina contemplated whether or not to shoot Kim, although she wondered if she could really be that cruel to Jack.

"You won't shoot me, Kim," Nina spoke, almost demanding that Kim put down her gun and walk away, a threat to Kim making clear that she was prepared to shoot her.

"Dammit, Nina!," Kim spoke, her voice louder and more nervous this time. Nina smiled, and slowly began to raise her gun. Kim, trying to remain calm, was trying to build up the courage to shoot, when a shot came out of nowhere and hit Nina's right shoulder, sending her to the floor. Shocked, Kim looked at where the shot came from, and noticed her father.

A few hundred metres away, Alex heard the shot and froze. He wondered, hoped, that it didn't signal the end of his sister's life, and tried to find where the shot came from. Running down the corridor, he could hear Jack, and as he turned into the room where Jack and Nina were, he saw Jack fire three bullets into his sister. A few moments of silence occurred, before Alex walked into the room.

"Jack?," Alex spoke, catching Jack's attention. Looking at the younger agent sadly, Jack stood up and walked towards Alex.

"I'm sorry, Alex, but I had to do it," Jack replied, and Alex could feel the anger rising in him. The shot he fired into Jack's body was quick and sudden, and as Jack lay on the ground, stunned and defenceless, Alex looked down at him with a look of pure fury.

"Dammit, Jack! You just had to have your petty revenge, didn't you?," Alex yelled at him, his gun pointed at Jack's chest and ready to end his life. Jack looked up at him with shock.

"Alex, please calm down! This doesn't have to get any worse, OK? Please don't do this," Jack pleaded with Alex, who suddenly did look calmer, much to Jack's relief.

"Jack, I'm afraid I'm doing this whether you like it or not. It doesn't matter anyway, I've already done this once before tonight," Alex spoke, and Jack didn't know what he was referring to at first.

"You son of a bitch! You killed Chloe!," Jack spoke, shocked and angry. Alex, who knew that he had to kill Jack quickly, simply smirked.

"Yes, Jack, and she died unnecessarily, because of you," Alex spoke, and he was about to finish off Jack before he heard guns click behind him. Freezing, he didn't dare move until he could be sure no one was behind him.

"Drop the gun, Alex!," Tony demanded, and Alex complied, looking at Jack hatefully as Tony moved up to Alex and handcuffed his hands behind him, and as Alex was led away from the scene, Chase knelt down next to Jack.

"You OK?," he asked, concerned about the gunshot wound in Jack's shoulder.

"I will be," Jack whispered.


	2. Shock To Anyone's System

_**Straight after the last chapter...**_

As Tony handcuffed his hands behind him, Alex looked away from Jack and focussed his weary eyes on his dead sister's face. He noticed her eyes staring up at the ceiling, pale green irises that once were expressive were now flat. As he was turned around and escorted by Tony out of the room, he could hear Jack talking to Chase, and although he couldn't tell for sure what they were saying, he assumed the conversation was about him and what he had just done.

Walking down the corridor, Tony stared straight ahead and tried not to think of that night Nina was arrested, the night he had seen her bitter, cruel eyes looking over the roof of her crashed car, and the night that someone innocent had been murdered in cold blood. He couldn't understand why Alex had killed Chloe, why he had tried to kill Jack, why Alex had suddenly become a whole different person. Deciding not to walk through the bullpen, he pulled Alex into a quiet corridor that led directly to the holding rooms, and as they moved silently, he could only stare straight ahead.

Jack was in pain, but the need to stop the threat was important enough for him to ignore it, and as he was helped to his feet by Chase, he tried hard not to show any signs of discomfort. The bullet was still lodged in his arm, but the bleeding had stopped and he could still use his arm. Wiping sweat from his face, he turned around to look at Nina, her body now cold and grey in complexion. Holding his arm slightly, he turned back around and walked out of the room with determination. He wanted to stop the threat and then, and only then, could he worry about the events that had just unfolded.

Chase had been shocked to see Alex and Jack when he had reached the room, and yet he could understand why Alex was willing to kill Jack. Although he knew only bad things about Nina Myers, he was aware that she had been Alex's sister, and that bond would have been strong regardless of what she had done. As he and Jack walked towards the bullpen, he wondered how Kim was going to react. Her father had just killed her mother's murderer, her friend had nearly killed her father and he had confessed to killing Chloe.

As they entered the holding room, Tony simply pointed to a chair before leaving Alex alone in the room. Sitting down, his hands still cuffed behind him, he wondered what was to come next. He knew that the murder of a federal agent, and the attempted murder of another agent, would mean that he faced the death penalty, but what was worse for Alex was that he knew what he had truly done – he had proved them all right. He knew that within CTU branches across the country, if anyone knew of Nina they knew of him, and he knew that many would not be surprised that he too had turned out to be a murderer. Now that Nina was dead, and since he had been trying to stop Nina being brought to CTU, he could only hope that they would not accuse him of being a terrorist, a traitor, working with his sister, which couldn't have been further from the truth. Sighing, he leant back as far as he could with his hands behind him, and closed his eyes.

Walking back to the bullpen, Tony tried to forget about Alex, knowing that he was the Director of CTU, knowing that he had to stop a major threat, and as he reached Michelle, he placed his arm around her lovingly, wanting to be close to her and close to someone he loved. Sighing quietly, he looked at the screen that Michelle was reading from, and forgot about Alex.

As Jack entered the bullpen, a concerned Kim rushed up to him and immediately grew worried about his wound, but the bigger shock for her came when Jack informed her of Alex's actions, and as he did, he could see that it had hurt her. He could see the betrayal in her eyes, and that angered him more than any attempt on his own life, because he knew that Kim had been hurt so badly by people she had trusted before, and Kim had trusted Alex immensely. Assuring Kim that he was OK, he walked towards Michelle, and focussed on the threat, more determined than ever to stop the virus from killing anyone.

Chase was still shocked as he reached his workstation and, as he slumped into his seat, he stared blankly at the screen of his computer. Just a short while ago, he had been amazed at the difference between Alex and Nina, and now he was amazed at the similarities. The whole night had been crazier than anything he had experienced before.


	3. Unwelcome Memories

_**Ten years later...**_

For the past ten months, Kim Bauer and her family had been living under false names in a quiet suburban street on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and although she was a long way from her native California, Kim was enjoying the life she led in the city as Ms Jane Wesley, spouse of David Wesley and mother of Annie Wesley. The last she had heard of her father was that he was somewhere in Germany, and was quite safe for a man who had the American and Russian governments looking for him.

The day had been warm and sunny, and Kim had spent much of the day enjoying the sun whilst she could, constantly aware that if anyone found out who she and her family really were, that they could be used to find her father, although Kim, knew deep down that her father would want her to protect her family rather than him. Pushing a strand of dyed brown hair out of her eyes, she carefully looked around the street she was stood in, before walking towards her car. Climbing inside, she shut the door quickly and locked it behind her, before taking a deep breath. She knew that she didn't need to worry so much, but if she was to be caught by people looking for her father, she knew that she could give them no real information, and that would put both her and her family at risk.

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

Ten years behind bars in the middle of the Californian desert had changed Alex in many ways. His dark hair was beginning to grey, his face was more wrinkled, his skin more tanned due to spending a lot of time in the sun. Although lucky to avoid the death penalty, Alex faced many more decades in prison without the hope of ever being released, and he had forced himself to get used to it. Now in his early fourties, he knew that other men of his age were bringing up families, making progress in their careers and looking forward to the time when their children would become adults themselves. At first, Sarah had made a few trips down from Chicago to visit him, but he hadn't heard from her for years and he had no idea what had happened to her, whether she was even still alive or long dead. Each day he would remember with clarity the final hours of his sister's life, and each day he would regret every mistake, every failure, every chance not taken.

Sighing as he walked along the perimeter of the exercise yard, the harsh summer sun on his face, he looked down at the dusty ground that he walked on. He rarely talked, except to the guards if they spoke to him first, and he had become almost like a ghost, wandering silently around the prison. Turning his head towards the road as a solitary car drove past, he watched the black vehicle as it passed by, and Alex wondered where the driver was headed or where they had been. At this part of the yard, the only thing that separated him from freedom was a wire fence that any fairly healthy adult could climb over, but in the years he had been an inmate at the prison, he had never heard of even a single attempt to escape over the fence, which had always been a source of curiosity for Alex, until he had realised why there had been no escape attempts – each one of the prisoners was used to jail, and none of them felt any attachment to the society on their doorstep. He looked towards a small group of inmates nearby, who seemed to be in the midst of mindless chatter, and Alex knew what each of the men had done – most were murderers or armed robbers, but a couple were rich and were in the prison for white collar crimes such as embezzlement.

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

As Kim parked up outside the school where Teri was a student, she gazed at the small crowd of mothers and fathers stood nearby, at the lines of children filing out of doors, at the cars that slowly manoeuvred towards and away from the school. She recognised some of the parents, and the ones that she didn't recognise got a second look from Kim as she tried to remember their faces, just in case. As the crowds of children began to grow, she expected to see her daughter emerge from the group and head for the car, but as the crowd thinned, there was no sign of Teri. Deciding to go and look for Teri herself, Kim climbed out of her car, careful to lock it, and walked towards the school. Recognising a woman as her daughter's teacher, she approached the kindly-looking, middle-aged woman, whose grey curls and soft blue eyes made her look like a grandmother.

"Mrs Hope?," Kim asked, catching the woman's attention, and she reminded herself of her name change, just in case. Even though her daughter's teacher was not exactly a threat, she couldn't risk her real name being revealed.

"Hi Mrs Wesley. Did Annie forget something?," Mrs Hope replied, and Kim's heart almost stopped. The very sentence suggested that Teri had already left, maybe even picked up by someone, and she knew her husband was at work all day until that evening. Trying to remain calm, she decided to investigate further.

"Has she already left?," Kim asked, and Mrs Hope looked at her with confusion.

"Yes, Jane, I thought you knew that your father was picking up Annie today," the teacher responded, and Kim felt like she was about to collapse.

"My..father? Mrs Hope, can you describe this man?," Kim asked, her voice pleading, and the teacher needed no further clue as to what had happened.

"Oh, my! I'm so sorry, Jane, but he had a picture of you and everything! He was tall, almost bald, green eyes and looked in his fifties," Mrs Hope told her, and Kim nodded. It sounded like her father, but she knew that he couldn't possibly risk coming back to the United States, and if he was planning to visit his granddaughter, he would surely have told his own daughter. Turning around and walking back to her car, all she could think about was the days that she had lived through, and pleaded with no one in particular that this was going to be another one.

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

Sitting down on a bench that was situated under the shade of the prison building, Alex looked out across the desert, at nothing in particular. The night when he was arrested, he did the same thing in the holding room, and hadn't noticed Morris O'Brien come into until the man had sat down across from him, and when he did he simply waited for Morris to speak. Morris had told him about Chloe, about their failed marriage and his efforts to beat his alcohol problem, and Alex sat there staring at him. It was only when Morris left the room that Alex whispered a quiet apology. He was then left alone for some hours, before Jack came in.

"_Did you do it of your own accord, or did she know?," Jack asked, his voice calm but firm. The threat had been ended, and now he wanted answers from Alex._

"_My own accord, Jack. She never had any idea that I killed Chloe. I guess Chloe is just another innocent who got caught up in this whole drama," Alex replied, his weary eyes not wanting to make contact with Jacks._

"_This drama? What do you mean?," Jack replied, and Alex looked surprised for a second that Jack seemed to have little idea of what he was talking about._

"_The drama that we've been in ever since Nina was arrested, Jack! Look, I'm sorry for killing Chloe, but I couldn't think of any other way of helping Nina. I feel like I've failed her," Alex responded, his voice louder than it had been. He looked over at Jack and wondered if either of them could ever have stopped Nina from going down the path she took._

"_Alex, the only person who failed Nina was herself. I can understand your connection to her, but I can't understand the need you had to help her, a need so great that you murdered a federal agent in cold blood and tried to kill another," Jack spoke, his voice lower, and Alex wondered if Jack was feeling sorry for him._

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

As Kim drove towards the CTU Philadelphia building, she tried to connect the description of the man who claimed to be her father to anyone she had met before, or even just seen in the street one time, but she couldn't fit a face or even a name to the description. Parking up close to the building, she hurriedly walked up to the front entrance, where a rather concerned looking agent was waiting for her.

"Ms Bauer? I'm Cole Ortiz, I've been assigned from CTU New York to help find your daughter," Cole informed her as the pair entered the building. Ortiz had flown by helicopter from New York as soon as Kim had alerted CTU of Teri's disapparance.

"Do you have any idea who took her?," Kim asked anxiously, her hand clasped tightly around a photo of Teri taken just days before. Walking into the main bullpen, Kim was in awe at just how much more technologically advanced CTU had become since she had left the agency soon after the Cordilla virus threat.

"Not yet, but Philadelphia have some of the best CTU agents in the Eastern United States, so we have a good chance of finding her," Cole replied as the pair walked into the conference room. Inside were a small group of CTU agents, all working on laptops.

"Hello everyone, I'm Cole Ortiz from CTU New York, this is Kim Bauer. She's got a description of the suspect from her daughter's teacher, and we are sure that whoever has Teri Bauer, wants to use her to find Jack Bauer," Ortiz informed the group, all of whom had heard a lot about Jack Bauer. There was a lot of respect for Jack throughout CTU, and he was well known within intelligence circles, something that Kim worried could pose a huge threat to her father due to the risk of infiltrators. Sitting down at the glass-topped, oval table in the middle of the room, she looked around and wondered if the agents in the room had ever had days like her father had. Whether they had experienced their own traitors, their own attacks on the building, their own little dramas and black comedies that seemed to be almost mundane at CTU Los Angeles.

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

As a police car sped past the jail, Alex remembered the time when he had been transported from CTU to District. A police car had been speeding past CTU at the time, it's sirens blaring. When he had arrived, he was taken straight to a holding room there, where he was handcuffed to the table in the same way that Nina had been during her interrogation at CTU earlier that day. It seemed surreal when Alberta Green of all people walked into the room.

"_Never foe one minute did I think you would turn out like her, Alex. Many people did as I'm sure you know," Alberta commented as she walked up to the table that Alex was sat at, and Alex was reminded of his first day working at CTULA. Back then, it seemed as if Alberta didn't like Nina, and the feeling seemed mutual._

"_I don't work for any terrorist organisation, nor am I selling information, Alberta. I'm not like her at all, but I know that's not how it will look to everyone," Alex replied, his eyes gazing at the table._

"_Never said you did, Alex, but I do agree that you'll be unfairly portrayed as such. We are willing to offer you a deal, though, which may well make you look a bit better in the eyes of CTU agents. Alls you have to do is plead guilty, don't let this drag through the courts and, in return, we'll take the death penalty off the table. Sound good?," Alberta spoke. Alex himself had already decided that he wasn't going to fight the charges, so the deal may as well be accepted._

"_Fine, I'll do it," Alex replied. Alberta nodded in reply, before turning and leaving the room. Alex looked down at the chain that restrained his hands to the table, and he wondered how Nina felt when she was first arrested, when she first felt cold, hard metal against her skin. She must have tired that night, just as much as Alex was tired now. She must have had a million thoughts fly through her head just like he had, and she must have had regrets just like he had, or did she not care much for regrets? Alex could never be sure if she had any remorse for her actions, or if she even thought of her actions._

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

Kim was watching a large screen as camera footage from near the school was played. Information from the teacher and others at the school told CTU that the man who had taken Teri had left the area about 10 minutes before Kim had arrived at the scene.

"Wait, stop! That's him!," Kim spoke loudly, as she noticed a man who fitted the description perfectly begin to walk towards the school. They watched the footage in slow motion as the man walked up to Teri, told the suspicious Mrs Hope that he was Kim's father – apparently, he even knew their false names and said Jane and Annie instead of Kim and Teri – and left the school rather briskly, heading for a red car that was parked close to the school entrance.

"Can you trace the number plate?," James Atkinson, the Director of CTU Philadelphia, asked one of his agents. Middle-aged, with grey hair and brown eyes, James had been working at CTU since it's foundation back in the early 1990s, apart from a short time spent at the FBI during the disbandment of CTU. A blond man sat next to him nodded, before typing away quickly on his laptop, and Kim couldn't help but be reminded of Chloe O'Brien. It had been a decade since her murder, and Kim rarely thought about her days at CTU or of the people she worked with during that time, and an uneasy thought came to her. Standing up, she turned to Cole.

"Cole, can I talk to you in private, please?," Kim asked, motioning towards the door.

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

Alex was back inside the prison, and was sat in the dining hall and attempting to eat the food that they were given – he had been told that it was far better than what they were fed in state prison, and Alex had felt sorry for the inmates in those prisons. He remembered his first day in jail after being sentenced to life without parole, at FCI Terminal Island in Los Angeles.

"_This is your cell, Myers," the guard said without emotion as they arrived at the small cell that looked just like Alex had expected – small, dark, crowded and probably smelly at night. As he entered, the guard walked away, leaving him inside the cell with the door open. On the top bunk a man similar in age to Alex was sat with his back resting against the wall, busily reading a book, and it wasn't until Alex sat down on the bottom bunk that he noticed Alex. Climbing down from the top bunk, Alex could see that he was thin, with short, blond hair, blue eyes and numerous scars on his arms._

"_You must be Alex, I'm Henry Berkeley," Henry spoke, before holding out his hand. Shaking his hand, Alex wondered where his scars were from, but decided not to ask._

"_Yeah, Alex Myers," Alex replied, and Henry seemed to think for a moment before he apparently remembered something._

"_Weren't you a federal agent who killed another agent?," Henry asked, and Alex wondered where he got the information. Deciding that it couldn't hurt to tell the truth, Alex nodded._

"_Yeah, that was me. Tried killing another one as well. Personally, I would have preferred to have killed him and not her, but that's not how things worked out," Alex explained, and he noticed that Henry seemed interested in what he was saying._

"_I've never killed anyone myself. I'm in for armed robberies up and down California. I got away with it for ten years, then got caught thanks to my own greed," Henry said, his voice telling Alex that he really wasn't that sorry he got caught, and wasn't at all remorseful for what he had done._


	4. Out Of Safety

_**Later that night...**_

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

A few minutes after the familiar slam of the cell door echoed through the room, and a few minutes before Alex would be asleep, the door creaked open again, and a guard walked inside, looking at Alex.

"Myers, you need to get dressed and come with me," the guard, a rather lanky man in his twenties, bald and brown eyed, informed him, his voice calm and flat, and Alex could not decipher the reason why, so he decided to do as he had been asked. As the pair walked down the darkened corridor, Alex stared straight ahead, unsure of what was going on.

"Go in there and take a seat," the guard spoke, gesturing towards a nearby wooden door, which suggested to Alex that it wasn't as secure as the cells were. Opening the door, he looked around the well-lit room. There was a mirror in the wall, along with a rectangular wooden table in the centre of the room, which had chairs bolted to the floor on the two longer sides. As he sat down facing the mirror – he assumed that as a prisoner he would be being observed from behind it – he noticed the similarity to the holding rooms back at CTU. The ten years since he had last been inside a CTU building had been full of memories of that place, and Alex had never really removed himself from it – he knew that he would always have that connection to CTU.

"_These are the holding rooms, Alex, where the interrogations take place," Josh spoke as he showed the young agent around CTU Chicago. The place was small and unassuming, and the darkened corridors outside the two holding rooms made the place look bleak. It was the year 1999, and Agent Alex Myers was beginning his career as a CTU agent. He knew that his sister, Nina, was high up at CTU Los Angeles – the headquarters of CTU itself – but had no such aspirations himself._

"_And this place monitors the entire city?," Alex asked, as the pair walked back into the main bullpen, where around twenty agents were busy on telephones and computers. Nodding, Josh looked over at the large monitors that covered one wall of the room._

"_Yeah, and so far they've been quite effective. I don't think we'll be able to stay this small forever, though," Josh replied._

It had been quite different when he had started at CTU Los Angeles. It was less than a year after the horrific September 11th attacks, and CTULA had been much bigger than CTU Chicago even before the attacks.

"_It's going to be interested working with you at CTU, Alex," Nina spoke, the pair sat inside Alex's apartment. It was Sunday afternoon, a few days before Alex was due to begin working at CTULA, and he was getting used to the huge differences between Chicago and Los Angeles._

"_I'm looking forward to it," Alex replied. The transfer to Los Angeles had actually been confirmed in January, but it had taken a while for everything to get sorted out, and now he was ready to work at CTU Los Angeles._

**Terrorist hideout, Pennsylvania**

For a child that had just been kidnapped, Teri Bauer was sleeping soundly, and Kevin had been relieved to find his plan was moving along smoothly. Running a hand through his blond hair, he looked at the picture of Kim Bauer that he had used to kidnap Teri, and wondered how she was feeling. He had no intentions of harming Kim, and he certainly had no intentions of hurting Teri – all he wanted was to find Jack Bauer. Noticing a man walking towards him, he anticipated good news.

"Any news, Richard?," Kevin asked flatly.

"I've been in touch with the Russians, and they're pleased with the progress made so far, sir. They want to see Jack Bauer in their custody within 24 hours," the man, short and dark-haired, spoke. Nodding, Kevin smiled.

"They will, Richard," Kevin replied, being a man of few words. He found speaking more than necessary to be of no use to anyone.

**Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, California**

Alex had been in the room for a short while, and he was close to falling asleep. It was late at night, and even the bright fluorescent light that shone down from the ceiling couldn't keep him awake, although when he heard activity behind the door he looked towards it and waited to see if anyone would enter the room.

As Cole Ortiz stood outside the door, he thought of all the information he had been given regarding Alex Myers. Slowly opening the door, and walking inside, he took a long look at the former CTU agent sat at the table, and was surprised to see a rather thin and weary-looking man. Sitting down opposite Alex, he placed a file on the table.

"I'm Cole Ortiz, CTU New York. I've been asked to come here and talk to you about something you could help us with," Cole said, before pushing the file over to a confused Alex.

Looking at the file, Alex noticed the orange CTU logo and realised that CTU was probably a very different place now. Touching the front cover of the file, he opened it slowly and saw a picture of Kim, along with a man and a small child. He stared at the picture, before looking up at Cole, who was looking at the picture himself. Returning to the file, Alex could only assume that this had something to do with Kim. What that something was, he had no idea.

"What is this?," Alex asked, confused. Moving the picture, he read the next page, and looked back up at Cole.

"She has a daughter called Teri?," Alex asked, and Cole was sure he could see Alex's eyes water slightly. He had been told by Kim that Alex had felt guilty about Teri's death for many years.

"Yes, and there's a lot to explain, but the most important thing is we need your help. Kim lives in Philadelphia now, and earlier today Teri Bauer was kidnapped. We're certain that these people want to get to Jack," Cole spoke, before realising that Alex knew nothing of the events in New York that had led to Jack's exile, before beginning to explain.

On the other side of the mirror, Kim looked on, staring at her former friend. She noticed the differences and the similarities in his appearance, the weary look in his eyes as he listened to Cole talk about events at the United Nations, at CTU and the aftermath. She had noticed the look in his eyes when Teri's name was mentioned, and she had noticed the tone of his voice.

"So why bother asking me for help? I've been in jail for a decade, I have no idea what CTU is like anymore, and I'm surprised that I'm not being suspected of being involved in the kidnapping," Alex asked. There had been a few "meetings" with CTU agents over the years, asking if he knew anything about one plot or another. There had even been a plot involving Jack's own brother and father, and Alex had wondered who was connecting him to some of the plots, especially as he knew that the investigation of his activities after he was arrested had proven that he had no connection to terrorists and was not working for anyone other than CTU.

"Because Kim asked for your help," Cole replied, and he knew why Kim had asked. Alex had been a close friend all of those years ago, and as many people she had worked with at CTU were now either dead or in prison, she must have hoped that there was a part of the Alex she remembered.

Suddenly, the door opened and for the first time in years, Kim and Alex met. Cole noticed a flash of bitterness in Alex's eyes, before they resumed their weary appearance.

"I need as much help as I can get, Alex," Kim spoke, her voice quiet. She stayed near the door, looking at her old friend with pleading eyes.

"Where is Jack, anyway? I thought he would be already back in the States to save his grandchild, even if it meant risking his death," Alex spoke, his voice more cynical than it had been. When he had worked at CTU, Jack had made many personal sacrifices, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

"He doesn't know yet, Alex. I wanted to see if you could help me first, but I don't think you want to," Kim spoke quietly, before turning around and walking out, the door slowly closing behind her.

"You're her last chance, Alex," Cole spoke. Alex looked at him and wondered just why his help was so coveted. What could he do that any CTU agent couldn't?

"Why?," Alex asked.

"Because you knew Jack, you knew Kim and you knew CTU. Look, we're not asking for help without offering anything in return," Cole spoke, before taking a document out of the file on the table. Passing it to Alex, he watched as the former agent read.

"You think a pardon will change things?," Alex spoke. The document guaranteed his release as long as he helped find Teri, and he was surprised to see no other conditions listed. He had seen a few pardons before, and almost all had a few pages of terms and conditions, but this one was simple and in return for helping CTU, he would be freed from jail.

"Will it?," Cole asked, and Alex looked up at him.

"Why would it? Most of the people I considered friends are dead, just like my family. I'll be a 42 year old convicted murderer with no real future. At least here there's some stability," Alex replied, and Cole could tell that he was becoming more emotional, and stood up.

"I'll give you a few moments to think about it," he said, before walking quietly out of the room.

Now alone in the room, Alex stared at the pardon. He wanted to help Kim, help find the little child who was blameless, but there was no reason for a pardon. Maybe it would be work out that he would save Teri but be shot dead by the terrorists, something he would be fine with. Looking over towards the mirror that separated him from Kim and Cole, he sighed quietly. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.


	5. Calculating Risks

_**Early the next morning..**_

**Helipad, CTU Philadelphia**

As the sun rose, the helicopter landed on the large helipad on the roof of CTUP, and Alex looked out of the window and at the sprawling city he had never been to and never thought he would be visiting in such circumstances. Stood nearby were two people – James Atkinson and Kim's husband, Stephen.

"Welcome to CTU Philadelphia," James said as the passengers walked away from the helicopter, and as Kim embraced Stephen, Alex knew who he was. Alex was dressed in civilian clothes, rather than his bright orange and white prison clothes, and he was neither handcuffed nor being particularly monitored, something which had surprised him at first, then he realised that he wasn't there as a prisoner, but as someone who could help find Teri. As the small group walked into the building, Stephen looked over at Alex. He had been told a lot about many people that Kim had known through CTU, but she had talked about Alex as if he was much closer to her, much more family than friend. He was aware that Alex's sister had murdered Kim's mother, and he was aware that Alex had tried to kill Kim's father, but he felt no hate or disgust towards Alex. In fact, he felt happy that CTU had been able to get Alex to help them.

"_She was beautiful," Stephen commented as he and Kim looked at a photograph of her mother. It was twelve years since her mother's death, and now she was pregnant with her own child. Although she was happy with her life now, there were gaps that should have been full, people that should have been there but had vanished for one reason or another, and much of her life had been affected by violence and death._

"_She was, and she was a great mom," Kim replied. Stephen looked at his wife sadly, and knew that so much had happened to Kim that it would remain with her forever. Some of the things she had told him, they were unbelievable. It had come as a shock to him that his relationship with her was the first real one she had been in for many years, and that it was only as they grew together that she really felt that she could let the past go._

"_And so will you, Kim," Stephen spoke._

As the conference room filled with people, Alex looked around at the agents in the room. Some of them looked very young – they were probably not even out of school when Alex had left CTU – and some of them looked at him knowingly, because he knew that everyone at CTU heard about Nina eventually – she was the myth, the legend that would forever be spoken of inside the agency.

"So you're Alex Myers," Stephen spoke as he walked up to Alex, offering his hand. Shaking it, Alex looked at Kim's husband and wondered what Stephen did for a living, whether or not it was a dangerous job.

"Yeah, and you're Kim's husband Stephen. I'm glad that she's in a stable relationship," Alex replied sincerely.

"I'm glad you've decided to help us, Alex. Kim's told me a lot about you," Stephen commented.

"_Why are you up so early, Kim?," Stephen asked as he walked into the living room, where Kim was sat at the computer. He couldn't tell what she was looking at, but it appeared to be a grainy photograph._

"_At this very moment ten years ago, Stephen, my father killed Nina Myers," Kim spoke, and he looked over at the clock on the wall. _

"_The woman who killed your mother? You know, you never told me what you thought of her death," Stephen spoke. Turning around, Kim looked up at him._

"_I don't know. Obviously, I was glad that she couldn't hurt anyone any more, but I never really liked the way she died, Stephen. The last time I saw her alive, she was lying on the floor injured, and I know my father claims it was self-defence, but I don't think it was. I can't blame him, though, no matter what. Besides, that wasn't the worst thing about that night," Kim explained._

"_What else happened?," Stephen enquired._

"_My father was almost killed after he shot Nina dead, by a man I thought was one of my closest friends, her brother. I mean, I could understand why Alex shot dad, and I don't blame him because my father wasn't that badly hurt, but it felt like the night my mother died all over again, like I had lost someone close to me," Kim spoke quietly, her eyes concentrating on the hands of the clock as they silently and slowly moved._

Although he had been inside CTU after his arrest before, Alex felt strange standing in the bullpen, unrestrained yet neither a civilian nor a federal agent. It certainly didn't feel like the last time he had been inside any CTU building.

_As he was escorted into CTU Los Angeles, just three years after he had murdered Chloe, he couldn't help but notice how different the place was, both in terms of physical appearance and the people working in the building. There was no Jack, no Tony, no Michelle. As the metal shackles around his arms and legs clinked together softly, he felt for the first time truly detached from CTU, from his former life as a federal agent. The holding room he was placed in was different to the one that Tony had taken him to after his arrest. A few minutes of solitude later, and a man entered the room._

"_Hello Alex, I'm Bill Buchanan. I've had you brought here because I believe you might know something about a plot," Bill spoke with little emotion, as he had no emotional attachment or feeling towards Alex. He just wanted to know if Alex knew anything, but as Alex looked particularly cynical, and not at all surprised, he wondered if this was not the first time that CTU had tried to get information out of him. Unlike his sister, Alex had been mostly left alone by CTU after he was jailed._

"_I know nothing about any plot, Bill. I suppose you could tell me what it is that I might know about, but it would only be a waste of your time," Alex replied, his eyes wearily looking at Bill, his mind as far away as it could get. _

"_Look, Alex, I know this must be annoying, even insulting, but you know we have to explore every possibility, and unfortunately you're one of those possibilities," Bill said._

"_Why? What makes me one? I've barely talked to other prisoners, never mind terrorists!," Alex replied, his voice raised. If he had no shackles to keep him restrained, Alex would have stood up and walked out of the door, caring little about the consequences or even the feasibility of such an action, but he was chained to the chair, and unable to do anything but listen and respond to Bill's questions._

"_We know about the phone call, Alex, that Nina's group made to you in 2002. They wanted you to join them, didn't they?," Bill asked, and Alex looked shocked. Yes, he had received such a call, but he had no idea that CTU knew anything of it, and could only assume that they had only recently found out._

"_Yes, but I refused the offer, Bill. I just ignored it and up until now, it had gone away. Why does that call have anything to do with a plot now?," Alex responded._

"_The man who called you is the man behind the plot, Alex. After Nina's arrest, he began to rise up the ranks of their group, and now he's pretty much at the top," Bill spoke. He knew that Alex had no connection to the plot, but Division had been adamant that if Alex had even the slightest connection, then he was to be brought into CTU._

"_Well, I have no role in the plot, Bill, I don't have any terrorist contacts. I don't want anything to do with terrorism or CTU any more, and I just want to stay away from this building for the rest of my life, please," Alex said, hoping that Bill would just decide that he had heard enough, and to send him back to prison. Although he was a former federal agent, life in prison really wasn't that bad once you accepted it, once you got used to being locked up, never able to go more than a few hundred metres from where you slept at night. Alex knew that he deserved his sentence, that he could have simply not killed – or attempted to kill – anyone, but had it really been totally up to him? His divided loyalties had caused him so much trouble in the years between Nina's arrest and his own, and it had been a desperate act to kill Chloe. Jack, on the other hand, was different – that had been in the heat of the moment, when emotions were high and rationality was nowhere to be seen._

"_Fair enough, Alex, I'm going to have you transported back to prison now Hopefully this will be the last time you come here, to CTU," Bill replied._

"So, how am I supposed to help find Teri?," Alex asked, still unsure of what exactly he could do to help find the little girl. It wasn't as if he was involved, and it certainly wasn't as if he had been the greatest CTU agent ever. Cole looked at him, before clearing his throat.

"We want you to pretend to be Jack," he replied, and Alex looked at him with confusion. Sure, he and Jack were similar in height, weight and build, but there were many obvious differences, and it was likely that the kidnappers had a good idea of what Jack looked like.

"How do you think that will work, Cole? Not to mention that it sounds almost like a suicide mission, regardless of the fact that you gave me a pardon," Alex responded, and Cole flipped through a file he was holding.

"As long as they think that you're Jack, this plan should work. You wouldn't be in any immediate danger, although I hope you can help with the rescue effort, as long as you aren't too rusty?," Cole explained, and Alex listened with interest. The plan sounded workable, and he began to realise that his knowledge of who Jack was as a person and as a federal agent would be a great advantage to them. Nodding, he decided that now was the time to start becoming more proactive in the operation. Thoughts of what waited for him once he was free were put to one side.

_The moment he had seen Jack stood next to the prison fence, Alex had looked away and hoped that it was just a hallucination. It had been three years since his arrest, and at least two since he had last seen Jack, so to see his former friend stood on the dusty road outside the prison was a shock to Alex. Deciding that he may as well go up to Jack, he walked slowly towards the fence Reaching it, he and Jack stared at each other for a few moments, separated by metal and a few feet of dusty desert._

"_Hello, Jack. I didn't expect to see you here," Alex spoke first, unsure of what Jack even wanted. Maybe Jack just had the urge to see him in jail, or maybe Jack wanted something more, like answers to some question that he couldn't get out of his mind._

"_You heard about Palmer's death, I assume?," Jack replied, and Alex nodded. A small part of him wondered if Jack thought he had some involvement in the former President's death a few weeks before, but if Jack was thinking that, he would have been far angrier than he was. Right now, all he seemed to be was devastated. Nodding, Alex waited for the next part of whatever Jack was going to tell him._

"_It's about Tony and Michelle, Alex. They were killed that morning as well, a car bomb outside their house," Jack informed him, and it took a minute or two for Alex to realise that a silent tear was falling down his face._

"_They're dead?," Alex managed to say in reply, unable to believe the news. It seemed as if death came early for anyone he had known. Nodding, Jack whispered goodbye and turned to walk down to the car parked a few feet away from the fence. Alex stood there and watched as Jack made his way out of the area, and he could do nothing but stand there, silently mourning his friends even though he felt that he had no right to._

Now that the plan had been explained, there was little they could do until the kidnappers made contact with CTU. Alex had decided to sit down on a chair that was away from any computers, so that he didn't appear to be a CTU agent. Noticing him, Kim walked over to him.

"Thank you for doing this, Alex," she told him, as she sat down on a nearby chair and wheeled it closer to him.

"Remember when I told you I would do whatever it took to protect you, Kim? I failed to do that the night I killed Chloe and tried to kill your father, but I won't fail you, Stephen or Teri now, I promise," Alex replied, his eyes directly looking into Kim's. He wanted to be seen as truthful, trustworthy, not as a murderer being pardoned for doing some good in the world for once.

"My dad never really blamed you for what you did that night, Alex," Kim replied. After the virus threat had been over, she had noticed that her father seemed almost angry at himself for putting Alex into such a position. Kim had been surprised to see a lack of any real anger towards Alex.

"Maybe that's a good way of looking at it for him, Kim. Maybe the fact that he doesn't blame someone helps him, but I still blame myself," Alex replied, and he looked away from Kim for a moment.

"I'll have to find Morris, tell him about the pardon. He deserves to know," Alex continued. Jack was someone who could afford the luxury of not blaming Alex for anything, but Morris wasn't as lucky. Chloe was dead, and Alex knew that it would have had a profound effect on Morris.

_As the sentence was passed, Alex looked straight ahead, knowing that right behind him sat Morris O'Brien. He heard no reaction to the guilty verdict, nor to the sentence of lifetime, and it was only when he was turned around in order to take him out of the courtroom that he could make eye contact with Morris, who seemed peaceful._

"_I'm sorry, Morris," Alex spoke quietly as he was led past Morris. Whether he accepted the apology or not, Alex had not been able to find out, but if there was anything he wanted to know more, it was that._

Making a mental note to ask Cole of Morris' whereabouts, his mind then wandered back to Jack.

"So, where do you think your father is now?," he asked Kim.

"I have no idea. Europe is a possibility, but he could be anywhere. Might even be dead by now," Kim replied, and Alex wondered if it would be possible to track down Jack. Maybe the very act would only put Jack in danger, but maybe it would be better if Jack heard of the pardon from Alex himself. The conversation was abruptly ended by an excited Cole, who announced to the pair that the kidnappers had contacted them. Passing Alex a phone and instructing him to pretend to be Jack, he stood nearby with a set of headphones, listening in to the conversation.

"This is Jack. I want assurance that Teri is still alive," Alex spoke, hoping that he sounded convincing enough. An awkward silence ensured, before a small girl spoke.

"Are you there, Grandpa?," Teri spoke, and Alex grew tense. If Teri said anything that would arouse the suspicions of the kidnappers, it would place her in even greater danger.

"Yeah, sweetheart. Are you OK? Listen, we're coming to get you soon, Teri, OK?," Alex replied, hoping that Teri would not notice the difference, that she would believe it was really her grandfather on the phone. Another moment of silence occurred, before Teri spoke once more.

"OK, Grandpa. I want you to come quickly, though," Teri replied, and Alex gritted his teeth in anger. The little girl sounded scared, and Alex wanted to assure her that everything would be OK, but Teri was quickly replaced by an adult male who didn't bother to inform Alex of his name.

"106 First Street. Meet me behind the building in one hour. No cops, no federal agents, no wires. If I even think that we're being watched, I'll kill you on the spot. I don't think I need to tell you what will happen to your granddaughter, Bauer," the man spoke, and Alex decided to risk a response.

"I'll see you in an hour, you son of a bitch!," Alex responded angrily, only for the man on the other end to chuckle.

"Easy, Bauer, easy. Look, I know of your issues with anger management, but remember that Teri is counting on you to be calm and give yourself up without too much trouble," the man replied, as Cole signalled to Alex that they had managed to trace the call.

"Fine, but I want her released as soon as you have me, is that understood?," Alex spoke, but the caller hung up, obviously under the impression that "Jack" had no say in the matter.

"The meeting place is about a mile away from where the phone call came from. Whoever made that call did so from a public payphone in a rather quiet area of the city," James informed the group.

"How far are you willing to risk your life here, Alex?," Cole asked, and Alex looked at him as if the question was redundant.

"As far as I have to," Alex replied.


	6. As History Looks Forward

_**An hour later...**_

Alex had borrowed an agent's car, and was pulling up outside 106 First Street. Like the man had requested, there were no CTU agents, no police and no wires to be seen, and Alex wondered if the man was technologically savvy enough to check for the tracking device that had been attached to the sole of one of Alex's feet. Climbing out of the car, he walked slowly around the building, and saw a man leaning against the wall, smoking nonchalantly. In his pocket was a handgun that Alex recognised as a Glock. Realising that if the man knew what Jack looked like, that he would be shot dead with that very gun, Alex looked away from it, and cleared his throat. The man, a short dark-haired and brown-eyed person, looked at him and nodded slowly.

"Excellent punctuality, Bauer. Put these on," the man spoke, before throwing a pair of handcuffs towards Alex. As he placed them on his wrists, he didn't notice the man walk up to him and roughly place a dark-coloured sack over his head. The man then grabbed Alex's arm and moved him away from where they had been standing. A short walk later, and Alex was being pushed into the back of a car. The sound of doors being first slammed shut then opened followed, and Alex wondered where their destination was going to be. Would they just take him somewhere and kill him, releasing Teri later on, or would they take him to where Teri was being held?

**CTU Philadelphia**

Kim was stood watching some of the giant monitors. Very much like the ones which had been there at CTULA when she was an agent, she noticed that the events being broadcast in silence were still very similar to the ones that had been broadcast all those years ago. She had no real interest in any of the screens in particular, but it made it easier for her to take her mind of the current events surrounding her and CTU.

"_Kim? We need to make sure Chappelle knows about the system changes? Kim?," Michelle was trying to speak to Kim, but the younger woman had her attention fully on the screens. Michelle turned to see what was so engrossing, before looking back at Kim and placing a kind hand on her shoulder, before Kim looked up at her._

"_Is everything OK, Kim?," Michelle asked. Kim had been working at CTU for a week now, and it had been a mostly smooth initiation into working at the agency. She knew that Kim was mostly there because Jack had felt it would be safer, but Kim had also gained some very useful skills at college, and she had already impressed CTU on a few occasions in her first few days. Gone was the teenager that Michelle had heard about that had to go through such trauma on the day her mother was murdered. Now Kim appeared more mature, more able to cope, but still Michelle worried, as did Alex, Tony and everyone else at CTU who had been there on that day of sudden change and revealed secrets._

"_Yeah, everything's fine, Michelle. I just need to get used to seeing those images," Kim replied, and Michelle was confused at first, before she turned around and saw that some of the screens were showing quite violent scenes, which seemed to be made worse by the lack of sound. She had managed to become desensitised to seeing such images herself eventually, but it had taken a while._

"_You will soon, Kim, it just takes time," Michelle responded._

Whilst Kim was looking at the screens, Stephen was sat at a nearby desk, worried about his daughter. He had no experience of CTU apart from a brief visit to the New York branch a few years before, and even then he barely did anything other than to meet Jack before they went to the airport to fly home to Los Angeles. He had heard a lot about CTU, been told of many events that had involved both Kim and her father, and he couldn't help but worry that, even if they did get Teri back, if the ghosts of the Bauer family's past were just waiting to come back and cause more death and misery. Operation Nightfall came to mind – he had been told little about the actual operation, but he knew a lot about the consequences – death, divorce, treason, revenge and so many lives destroyed. The fire that had been started by Nightfall took years to burn out, long after even the deaths of Nina Myers and Stephen Saunders, and even now there was a concern that the embers still flickered softly. What about Alex? If he got out of this alive, what then for him? Stephen wondered if Alex still had any anger towards Jack, and maybe he had a right to, but few people knew where Jack was nowadays. He didn't think Alex would go after Jack, even if a darker thought of wanting Jack gone to remove the threat to his daughter lingered in his mind.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

Jack was peering through the crack of the hotel curtains, looking out for signs of life. It was the middle of the night in Germany, but lately the nights had been sleepless for Jack, and now he was beginning to grow ever more paranoid. Things had been happening that he didn't like, and he was sure that someone, whether they be American intelligence or Russian agents, knew he was in the city. He didn't know which one he preferred, especially after the incident a few weeks before.

_He swore under his breath as he jumped out of the car and ran into the alleyway, his heart beating madly and his hand grasping the illegally obtained gun. Jack had no idea who the man chasing him was, and he had no intention of letting him complete his mission for whoever he worked for. Finding a good place to hide, he cocked his gun as the man ran into view. Jack couldn't see many of his features, but he could see short blond hair, dark sunglasses over the man's eyes, dark clothes and gloves, and a silenced pistol held in one hand. Jack knew that if he had to shoot, he would have to shoot to kill, otherwise he would risk a firefight as well as attract attention, not something he wanted to happen in the middle of a busy city, even if it was early in the morning._

"_Bauer? Make this easy on yourself," the man spoke, giving Jack a clue. The man's accent was thick, and it was also Russian. Jack had certainly killed enough Russians back in New York, which was why the Russians were after him in the first place, but for some reason, killing this man seemed to be worse than all of those deaths a few years before. Maybe it was because he wasn't controlled by the vengeful rage, or maybe it was because he was sick of death, sick of taking lives. He stood up and waited for the man to notice him, before a quick shot to the head killed the Russian instantly. Realising that he had to get out of there fast, he grabbed the remains of his bullet, still hot but not hot enough to be felt through Jack's leather gloves, and pocketed it before sprinting back through the alleyway to his car. Sirens could be heard in the distance, but not close enough to get there in time. _

He wished that Chloe could help him in some way, but he had refused contact with any of his friends, fearing that they would be dragged into the mess, or it would make things easier for the people after him. A third thought, of potential betrayal, did form but Jack wondered if he still had any friends who would betray him. The ones who had were now either dead or in jail, and he had gotten better at trusting only a select few. Sighing, he moved away from the window and sat on the edge of his bed. He wondered what Kim and her family were up to, and wished that he could see them again. Even if it was only for a few brief moments, but he knew that it would be too dangerous for all of them.

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

The CTU van carrying Cole and a small group of armed tac team members was following the car in which Alex was being transported. It was a rather shabby van in need of a wash, but it served it's purpose as a way of tracking Alex and the group without suspicion. They were travelling north along a rather busy stretch of road, presumably heading for one of the more rural settlements that bordered the city. Cole checked the laptop that was feeding them information about the tracking device. It showed that Alex was still alive, that his heart rate seemed relaxed, and that he wasn't sweating too much, and Cole could tell that Alex was calm, using what he could remember from his days as a CTU agent to relax yet remain alert. From what he had heard from other agents who had once worked at CTULA, Alex had been a good agent, with various useful skills and knowledge, and Cole felt it a shame that things had gone the way they had. If only Chloe could still be alive, if only Alex was still a CTU agent, if only Jack didn't have to be on the run but instead there in the States with his family. CTU really could destroy a person.

_She was lying in a pool of plastic, her eyes wide open and her clothes stained with blood, where Jack had shot her dead. Cole couldn't help but look at Dana's face with bittersweet feelings. She had betrayed them, she had a lot to do with the day's events and she had killed more than once that day, but still he couldn't help but feel that her death was cold-blooded, that it was unnecessary. A small feeling of anger rose in him, anger at Jack for killing Dana, anger at Chloe for being so stubbornly loyal to Jack. He could understand that she had good reason for sticking with Jack, but at the same time he was frustrated with her sometimes blind loyalty. _

"_Agent Ortiz?," a voice behind him asked, and he turned around to see a short, dark-haired police officer looking rather sympathetically at him._

"_Yeah, that's me," Cole replied, his voice subdued. The officer nodded, before taking a quick glance at a notepad he was holding, before looking back up._

"_We're looking for Jack Bauer as best as we can, Agent Ortiz. He can't have got far," the officer replied, as if to assure Cole that everything was being done to track down Bauer, but he knew that Jack could hide himself away and make it close to impossible for someone to find him._

"They're slowing down," the driver, another CTU agent called John Balfour spoke. They were now in the open countryside, and the only structure in sight was obscured by a small group of trees, but Cole could tell that it was a rather large building. They came to a stop behind the trees and watched as the gang members escorted Alex inside.


	7. So Far, So Good

_**A/N – You may have noticed that I mentioned Chloe in the last chapter as if she were alive, which would be very difficult regarding the events of the first chapter.**_

As Alex was marched away from the car, the combination of a wooden floor and warmth told him that he was now inside a building. Whatever the building was, it was silent apart from the creaks of floorboards and a quiet murmuring, as if someone was talking in another room. A door opened in front of him, before he heard it slam behind him, before he was forced down to his knees.

"Were you followed?," a voice asked, and Alex listened carefully, He knew that not only were they followed, but the tracking device told CTU exactly where he was.

"I'm sure we weren't. Makes no difference, anyway." another voice spoke, and Alex wondered what this second voice meant. Did it mean Teri was somewhere else, or did it mean something more sinister that Alex didn't want to consider as a possibility.

"I suppose. Well, take the sack off of our guest, let him breathe," the first voice spoke again, and Alex tensed. If this person knew anything about Jack's appearance, he would know immediately that they had been tricked. As the sack was pulled off, Alex's eyes were attacked by a bright light, probably a lamp pointed in his direction. Blinded for a moment, he heard nothing but silence, which worried him.

"Who the hell is this?," the first voice yelled, as Alex regained his vision and realised that he likely had only a few minutes left to live. Suddenly one of the man punched him, knocking him over.

"He said he was Bauer on the phone, Richard! Jesus, we were all convinced, including you!," the second voice spoke to his short, stocky boss Richard, who was staring at Alex.

"Kill him, and instruct the others to kill the kid as well. Dammit Kevin, this whole plan's going downhill way too fast!," Richard spoke, all traces of emotion gone from his voice and face, then made a fatal mistake of leaving him alone with his killer. As he was brought back up to his knees, Alex looked up at the man.

"You don't want to do this, I can tell you were Jack is!," Alex spoke, trying to buy time, hoping that Cole and the tac team would soon storm the building. The man snorted, before crouching down.

"Really? So who the hell are you?," the man asked, before Alex moved back slightly. The man fell backwards as Alex head butted him hard, before lunging forward and grabbing the gun, thankful that the handcuffs were at his front. He decided to fire a shot, smashing a window and making a lot of noise. He knew that Richard and his lackeys would be distracted by the noise, focussing their attention on him, whilst also signalling to Cole and the others that something was wrong.

Outside, Cole and the tac team had heard the gunshot, and as the tracking device still showed Alex to be alive, Cole made the decision to storm the building. They climbed out of the van before heading, guns at the ready, towards the front entrance of what was probably once a barn. Pulling open the doors quickly, they noticed four armed men, who all made the mistake of firing at the tac team. Seconds later, three were dead, riddled with bullets, and the fourth was on his knees with his hands in the air, blood visible where he had been shot in the arm and side.

"In here!." Alex called out, and Cole walked into the second room to see Alex holding a gun at a kneeling man, as well as a rather dazed gang member slowly regaining consciousness.

"Teri's not here, Cole," Alex spoke. He gestured towards the kneeling man, who was still glaring at him.

"His name's Kevin. They knew immediately that I wasn't Jack," Alex continued.

"We'll take these two back to CTU with us," Cole replied, as two tac team members brought a handcuffed and wounded Richard into the room.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

There was no way that Jack could ever had predicted what was going on in Philadelphia as he slipped into an uneasy sleep. His dreams had never really gotten any better over the years, gradually getting worse as the nights went by, but the worst thing was that at one point at least the dreams sometimes gave him sweet reminders of Teri, of her voice, her laugh, but now these memories were being overridden by images of her sitting dead in that chair, her blood spilt and her life ended far too soon.

_Jack looked at his wife, dead in his arms, slain by a traitor. His tears fell silent, and as he hugged her tightly, willing her to come back to life, so many thoughts both light and dark flooded through his mind, and he knew that if he had known of Teri's murder before he had caught Nina, that Nina would have been dead in the garage no matter how much Mason and Tony tried to convince him otherwise. He wondered if Alex would have been more understanding of why he had killed Nina, but then maybe Alex did understand why he needed to kill Nina, but maybe his anger at seeing a loved one die in cold blood was no less righteous than his own on the day Teri was murdered._

_The lights of the corridor seemed far too bright as he walked out of the room, and as he slowly walked in a daze, he focussed on nothing. He wondered if he could still get to Nina, wondered if Senator Palmer had heard. Wondered what would happen now. Would Kim hate him for not protecting his wife, her mother? Would Alex stay at CTULA or would he disappear back to Chicago, leaving behind chaos and death as if he were the Angel of Death himself – Jack could only chuckle silently, and very shortly, at this thought, as if it was due to Alex that Teri had died, when it was anything but his fault. He wondered how Tony would take the betrayal, how Division would react. As he walked closer to the bullpen, he could not hear the usual low murmur of noise and activity that accompanied the main floor of CTU at all times, but instead it was as silent as any graveyard._

"_Hey, Jack. Kim's in the conference room," Mason spoke quietly, and Jack walked silently towards the room. He knew that he had to be a strong father for his daughter, but was worried that maybe he wasn't going to be as strong as he should be. He noticed Alex still at his desk, a mop of dark brown hair resting on pale arms, and he wondered if Alex was either asleep or deep in thought. Opening the door to the conference room slowly, he took a deep breath, and prepared himself to be stronger than he had ever had to be in his life._

**CTU van, Philadelphia**

The tac team had managed to break the handcuffs off of Alex's wrists, as the key had vanished, and he was now sat close to the front of the van, whilst the two terrorists were sat in between the tac team members, handcuffed with their hands behind them. The CTU agents had no idea where Teri or, or how long they had left. Alex knew that Richard had instructed Teri to be killed, a fact he found beyond disgusting, but whether he had managed to communicate it to whoever had Teri was unclear.

"That was some great work you did back there, Alex," Cole spoke, and he was impressed that Alex still seemed to have a lot of his skills from being a CTU agent.

"Yeah, maybe, but until we get Teri back to Kim and Stephen, we've still not won," Alex replied, his eyes gazing out of the front window. The streets of Philadelphia were unusual to him as he had never been to the city before, and he wondered why Kim and Stephen had been housed there. As far as he knew, Kim's family had been in California for generations since emigrating from Germany – her father's side – and Ireland – her mother's side – some two hundred years before. He knew nothing about Stephen's background, but was pleased that the man seemed to care for Kim, and hoped that he didn't have a dangerous job involving CTU.

"Look, we've got much better technology for interrogation than you would have known of back when you were a CTU agent. We've got some good tools for getting the information we need out of the pair," Cole spoke, and both he and Alex felt a internal disdain for the methods of torture. Few CTU agents enjoyed using torture, and even less liked seeing it being put into use, but the concept of torturing people was still advocated by Division, and both Alex and Cole hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Do you think Jack would know who these two and their gang are?," Alex asked, looking over at the prisoners. It felt strange to see people handcuffed without being handcuffed himself, which was probably due to the fact that he had spent a decade in prison, not to mention the numerous times he had been shackled and taken to CTU for questioning regarding some terrorist plot. The most bizarre one was about four years after he had been jailed, and it hadn't been CTU asking for him, but the FBI in Washington D.C., and he had been flown across the country to be interrogated by an FBI agent called Kate Wyman. Alex and Kate had met each other before, and it turned out that the interrogation was regarding the death of Esteban Salazar, the younger brother of the Salazar brothers who had been bidders for the Cordilla virus.

"_This is an interesting conversation Kate, but I'm sorry that you had me flown from California just for me to tell you that I know nothing about Esteban Salazar," Alex spoke, his eyes wandering around the room as he did, in an effort to seem bored. He really didn't know anything about this third Salazar, and he was suffering badly from jet lag._

"_Would it make it more interesting if I told you we had a mole in the FBI, who had been feeding information to Salazar?," Kate replied, and Alex couldn't help but smirk. Was that all the connection they had – a Salazar and a mole?_

"_Do you know the name of this mole? Maybe they would be better off working for CTU, they've got much better experience of working with moles there," Alex remarked, and he had to restrain himself from laughing._

"_Yes, I do. He's your cousin, Eric Myers," Kate replied, and the colour drained from Alex's face, before returning in a flash of red._

"_My cousin? My cousin helped a Salazar?." Alex responded angrily, his voice raised, and Kate was glad that Alex was both shackled and chained to the table. He looked up at Kate, and she noticed that his eyes were full of pure anger._

"_Yes. I thought it wouldn't be that shocking to you Alex, but I guess I was wrong about that," Kate spoke. She watched as the red vanished as Alex calmed._

"_We're finished. Take me back to prison," Alex spoke quietly, his eyes looking down at the table._

Cole shook his head. If Jack did know, it didn't matter at this moment in time. Jack was nowhere to be found for his own safety, and it wasn't as if CTU were in contact with him in any way – if they were, they would have called Jack and he would be in that van right now instead of Alex. Not that Cole was unappreciative of Alex, but Alex had been in prison for ten years and although they had been lucky so far, it could take only one mistake and the whole mission would end in failure.


	8. What Happened All Those Years Before

**Morris' house, Los Angeles**

Morris had always been a light sleeper, and tonight was no different. He lived alone in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and the memories of Chloe still came to him every day. The promise he had made to never go back to his past as an alcoholic had been faithfully kept, but Morris felt it was useless to do so without Chloe there to enjoy life with. In fact, if it hadn't of been for Chloe, he would never have got the help he had needed to quit his addiction. If it hadn't of been for the possibility of a life together with Chloe again, he would have drunk himself to death by now. Sighing as he laid in bed, his eyes looking up at the shadowy ceiling, he was like Jack in that he could neither sleep nor predict at all what was happening at that very time in Philadelphia.

_As Morris climbed out of the car, his eyes gazed over at the prison. It looked strange, a structure out there in the desert, yet it also made perfect sense to have a prison there. Whoever was desperate enough to escape that jail must also be desperate enough to walk through a hot desert without falling victim to the sun._

_He could see some of the prisoners in the exercise yard – some were walking aimlessly, others were sat in the shade on plastic benches that seemed to be bolted into the ground, whilst others were playing basketball. Alex, he noticed, was one of those who was walking around with no pre-planned destination in mind, and Morris watched him as he walked. He saw Alex stop, then stare at some distant part of the fence, and for a brief moment Morris was sure that Alex was about to escape, even though to do so would be suicide as there were plenty of armed guards who looked more than capable of shooting a fleeing prisoner in the back._

_Thoughts of Chloe came into his head, and Morris wondered if Chloe had any idea who it was that had murdered her, who had struck her down so coldly that night. Alex had testified that Chloe had no idea, that she never saw him even for a fraction of a second. Morris had felt a tear roll silently down his cheek as he heard Alex describe the events, and he wasn't sure if it was relief that Chloe had not seen her attacker or had any idea of what was about to happen to her, or if it was sadness that Alex could have wiped out Chloe's entire existence with a few cold blows with a hammer._

"_Did Nina Myers know of your attack on Chloe O'Brian, Mr Myers?," the prosecution lawyer, a short blond man called John Prinze, asked, and for a brief moment Alex looked down, before looking back at John._

"_No, she did not," Alex replied firmly. He wondered what the difference would have made if Nina had known. It wasn't like she could have stopped him, or would have wanted to stop him if killing Chloe meant giving her a chance to get away from Jack and CTU._

"_Did you do it purely to prevent Nina Myers being brought into CTU?," John asked, and Alex couldn't think of any other reason why he would have killed Chloe._

"_Yes, I thought it would allow more time for the system to remain down, forcing Jack Bauer to take my sister back to Mexico. I wouldn't have harmed Chloe in any way otherwise," Alex responded, and he couldn't help but glance over at Morris, who turned away slightly, not wanting to make any sort of eye contact._

"_If you had succeeded, would you have regretted your actions, as you claim to do so now?," John asked, and now it was Alex's turn to avoid eye contact with Morris._

"_Yes, although this was not premeditated. Nina's attack on the system was unexpected, and I felt trapped, as if I had to do something to help her. I didn't want to take Chloe's life from her, but I was tired, stressed and felt as if I were being pulled in two directions at once," Alex spoke. He wondered what would have happened if he had succeeded? Would he had admitted it freely, or would he have waited until they found any evidence that led them to him?_

"_Yes, we've heard of your 'divided loyalties' regarding Nina Myers and CTU. Tell me, is there any other incidents that led you to harm other agents, or even innocent civilians, so that your loyalties to both Nina and CTU were satisfied?," John queried, and Alex thought for a moment. There had never been any such incidents other than the night he had been arrested, but then what about Tunisia?_

"_There was something like that, yes, but it didn't directly cause anyone to suffer," Alex replied, and he could feel Jack's eyes burn into his face, and didn't dare look over at his former friend._

"_And what was this incident, Mr Myers?," John spoke._

"_It was during a visit to Nina in Tunisia, when she was in exile. There was a bomb that injured me slightly, and I was told something about Nina that I asked CTU to keep quiet for Jack and Kim's sake, and it really was for them and not for Nina, even if Nina did benefit," Alex spoke, his voice lower than it had been, and he could almost hear Jack's teeth grinding in anger – maybe he had already guessed what Alex had helped cover up?_

"_Go on. What was this 'something'?,"_

"_I told Jack that she had been injured and was in a secure hospital, but that was a lie. She had in reality escaped," Alex spoke, and the anger coming from Jack seemed so red hot that he was sure Jack was about to explode._

_Morris was shocked, and didn't know what to think of this revelation. In a way, Chloe's fate had been decided the day Nina had escaped, and although Alex didn't exactly help her escape, by hiding it from Jack he may as well have done._

_Shaking himself out of the reverie, Morris realised that one of the guards was looking at him suspiciously. Taking a quick glance over at Alex – who was now sat in the shade and appeared to be deep in thought – he climbed back into his car and headed back to Los Angeles._

Morris wondered if he would be lucky to have that one good dream he had about Chloe. It was from a happier time, before his alcoholism had caused their divorce, and the two of them were on holiday in Mexico. It had been the greatest holiday he had experienced in years. As he drifted off, he hoped that he would smell the sea air within seconds.

**CTU Philadelphia, Philadelphia**

The interrogation rooms were not only different in appearance to the ones Alex had seen at CTULA, but they seemed to be as full of technology as the bull pen was. The room was washed in bright light, and in the middle was a steel table accompanied by two metal chairs that had been bolted to the floor. On the table itself was an assortment of machines and devices, one of which was attached to Richard, and in the surveillance room behind the mirror, Alex could see a monitor giving him, Cole, Director James Atkinson and Kim a good idea of how stressed the man was. Alex couldn't help but reminded of the night of Nina's death and his arrest – they had attached a more primitive device for measuring vitals such as blood pressure and heart rate to Nina when they had interrogated her.

Walking into the interrogation room, Cole looked at Richard, studying his features. The man could not be found in any fingerprint or DNA database that CTU had access to, and so they knew little about him.

"Where is she? I'm in no mood to be messed around," Cole spoke, his voice firm and his eyes staring straight into Richard's.

"Tell my boss where Jack Bauer is, and I'll let you know," Richard replied, seemingly sure that he was going to be out of there within a few hours.

"Who is your boss? The Russians?," Cole asked. He knew that Richard was most likely not at the very top of the group responsible, and he also knew that if the US government wanted to find Jack Bauer, they would use their vast web of CIA operatives to scour the world for him. So far, Jack was proving to be excellent at hiding.

"I'll give you a phone number. Call it, tell the person who answers where Bauer is, and as soon as I leave this place, with no tail behind me, I'll get in touch with my boss, and the little girl will be back with her parents as soon as possible," Richard responded.

"How do I know you're not bluffing me here, Richard?," Cole asked. It all seemed too smooth, too easy. Alls they had to do was to give them the location of Bauer, and a few steps later Teri would be safe? Surely these groups would know by now that CTU had no idea where Jack was.

Inside the surveillance room, Alex was thinking hard, listening intently to the conversation. He had gone back into CTU agent mode, and it was as if he hadn't been away from CTU for ten days, never mind ten years.

"James, where's the other prisoner?," Alex asked, an idea forming in his head.

"In the next interrogation room. Why?," James asked, before realising that the other prisoner, Kevin, was by himself. Alex started to walk towards the door, turning around as he reached it.

"We should be talking to him at the same time," Alex replied, before walking down the corridor and entering the other interrogation room. Noticing that Kevin was asleep, he smirked, before walking quietly up to the prisoner and slamming his fist onto the table in front of him. As Kevin woke up suddenly, Alex wasted no time.

"Where is she?," Alex asked, his voice firm and threatening, and Kevin appeared unsure. Another slam of a fist on the table soon got him speaking, but it wasn't what Alex wanted to hear.

"I don't know for sure, no one does except for the men who have her," Kevin replied, and Alex grabbed him by the neck, pushing his face up so that Alex stared straight into his eyes.

"How did that happen? How?," Alex spoke, his voice loud and as menacing as he could make it sound. Kevin looked scared, but Alex could also tell that he seemed to truly not know where Teri was.

"Is there anything you know that can help us, Kevin? Remember, if she dies you'll be in serious, serious trouble!"," Alex continued, his voice getting louder.

"Yes, but...but I'll be in danger from the bosses if I told you," Kevin replied, his voice little more than a whisper, and Alex realised that he had to be seen as even more of a danger. Pressing harder on Kevin's neck, he moved his head closer to Kevin's, and whispered to him.

"I've spent the last ten years in jail for murder, so do not think that I'm bound by the same rules as these agents, Kevin. Your bosses will seem like your best friends compared to what I could do to you," he spoke, and the look on Kevin's face told Alex that it had worked.

"Alls I have is a phone number, in my pocket," Kevin replied, and Alex pushed a hand into the pocket, before taking out a small piece of paper. Seeing a cell phone number on it, he let go of Kevin's neck and moved towards the door. Reaching it, he turned around and looked at the man.

"You did the right thing, Kevin," he spoke quietly, before racing out of the room and straight into the surveillance room where James, Kim and Stephen were still watching Cole interrogate Richard.

"You get anything from him?," James asked, and Alex nodded, before handing over the paper.

"He says that we might be able to find Teri using that. If we can find where that cell is, we can probably find her close by," Alex explained, and the way Kim's face lit up couldn't have been better. Smiling for the first time since he had arrived there, he followed James out of the room as they moved into the main floor of CTU.

"I need someone to track down where this cell phone is," James called out to the small group of agents who were present. A young woman, with dark hair and green eyes who reminded Alex of Nina looked over from her desk and called out.

"I can get that for you in minutes, James. What's the number?," she asked, and James walked briskly over to her desk.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

The sleep had not lasted long for Jack, and he was now outside, walking slowly through the quiet streets as dawn began to break. No matter how quiet it was, he was still on high alert, and he was careful with every step, to be aware of everyone and everything around him. The Glock hidden under his coat was there as a safeguard, but he knew that it would be useless in a crowded area or in the middle of the day – whilst his pursuers might not think twice of shooting him dead in front of police and civilians, he didn't have the same suicidal behaviour. A thought of Alex came into his mind and usually, he would try not to think of his former friend, but for some reason he welcomed the thought.

_It had been two years since Teri's murder, and Jack had decided to visit her grave and lay some flowers next to the ornate gravestone that he and Kim had picked out together. It was close to midnight, close to the exact minute of the day when Nina's treachery cost Teri her life, and as he walked down the dimly lit path towards Teri's grave, he tensed. There was a figure crouched in front of the grave, and Jack couldn't tell who it was, although he could see that it was a male of medium height and build. The hair on his head looked jet black, but whether it truly was or just looked like that due to the darkness Jack couldn't tell. Walking slowly up to the figure, he stood behind the man, who was whispering._

"_I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Teri, I would love to be able to go back and stop her sooner, but it's just not possible," Alex spoke quietly, not realising that Jack was stood behind him, and when Jack put a hand gently on his shoulder, he froze._

"_Alex? It's me, Jack," Jack spoke quietly, before Alex stood up and turned around._

"_Sorry, I didn't realise that you might come here at this time," Alex replied, but Jack shook his head._

"_No need to be sorry, Alex. I guess I'm happy that others visit her apart from me and Kim," Jack spoke, his eyes gazing at the lettering engraved on the stone, which was hard to read in the light and would have been impossible to understand if you weren't someone who had seen the grave so many times before._

_The two men stood in silence at the graveside for a few more minutes, nothing else needing to be said._

**CTU Philadelphia**

A familiar female voice called out, and James and Alex looked over at the woman who reminded Alex of Nina.

"What is it, Jane?," James asked, and the wide grin on Jane's face said a lot.

"I've found the location of the cell phone."


	9. Second Thoughts

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

It was edging towards dawn as the small convoy of black CTU vehicles made their way south through the slowly awakening city towards the small Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, which was a small urban park that included both a pair of lakes – one clear, one murky and a golf course. The cell phone was believed to be located somewhere near the lake, and as they got ever closer to their destination, Kim grew ever more nervous. Would they find Teri, or was she somewhere else, with the cell phone being a false hope? Was she even still alive?

In the leading vehicle was Alex, Cole and James. Although not a CTU agent any more, Alex had been given a gun and told by James that he was to act like an agent, which Alex took to mean that he was being given permission not only to help them, but to do whatever a CTU agent would do if the need arose. As the convoy drove into the park, they parked up close to the entrance. It would take them minutes to reach the two lakes, but potentially hours to locate the cell phone and, possibly, Teri. Climbing out of the SUV, Alex looked around, and for the first time in many years saw lush green grass and tall trees, brightly-coloured flowers and the smell of nature. It was certainly different to the barren desert wasteland that he had spent the last decade in.

"The cell phone has been located somewhere near the north of the western lake. There's a car park there, so I think we should search that first," James announced to the small group, which consisted of Alex, CTU agents, Kim and Stephen. As the group began to walk south-west, they walked with some haste, even those who had been up all night. Both Alex and Kim, as well as Cole, had experience of long days that never seem to end until tragedy struck.

"_I hate the night," Alex muttered to himself as he looked at the nearby clock. It was close to nine o'clock, and Alex knew that it was another of those days, just like his first day at CTULA, just like the time four years earlier, when Nina had been pardoned then exiled, and for some reason it seemed as if these days were all connected to each other, like a thread of bad luck and death that strangled every CTU agent whenever it managed to wind it's way around their necks._

"_Couldn't agree more," a quiet voice spoke, and Alex noticed Kim was stood next to him. She had been working at CTU now for a couple of years, because Jack thought she would be safer at CTU – not exactly something everyone agreed with, especially not Alex who had tried to get Jack to change his mind. Eventually, Alex had accepted Kim working there, and the past two years had been mostly uneventful._

"_They'll be fine, Kim. Your father may have some concerns about your relationship with Chase, but they will be watching each other's backs. Besides, if everything goes to plan, this can only convince Jack that Chase is a suitable partner for you," Alex replied, but he knew that Kim was also thinking about Teri. Even he was, knowing that it had been late at night when events had come to a tragic end, with Nina being arrested and Teri being killed in cold blood._

"_Maybe they will, but you know this place. One minute you're happy, the next you're devastated," Kim responded._

Entering the car park, Alex scanned up and down the rows of cars that were already there, mainly belonging to people who worked in the park, plus a few others taking advantage of the parking spaces in a crowded city. One that stood out was a van rather than a car, it's colour a distinct shade of dirty white that seemed to be it's actual colour rather than there through not being washed.

"We should take a look at that one," Alex spoke, gesturing towards the van, and he and Cole made their way towards the back of the van, careful not to bring any attention to themselves from anyone who might be inside the vehicle. As they approached the back, Alex noticed that the van had Illinois plates and, being from Chicago, the name of his home state made him realise just how distant he now was from his home city. Even Sarah had become distant from him, something he wanted an explanation for. He could forgive her if she was still alive for not visiting, because he wanted her to be alive, to be there as a friend in the years to come. Taking hold of the back door handle, gun ready to use if necessary, he slowly opened the door, as Cole did with the other door, and moved quickly around the door to find nothing. Sighing, the pair closed the door with care so as not to attract any attention, and moved away from the van.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

Jack was sat inside a café, slowly sipping from a cup of lukewarm coffee. The table in front of him was plastic, with a red and white chequered cloth draped hastily over the top, and the chair he was sat in was wooden and seemed to creak whenever Jack so much as breathed out. He was facing the front of the café, eyes focussed on the wide doorway that seemed to take up more than half of the cafés front. Outside was a small and steady stream of people and, if Jack tried not to hear the German being spoken to others and into cell phones, he could imagine himself to be in Los Angeles, even if the sky had grown a dark, angry grey and even if the pavement and roads were covered in puddles of dark rainwater.

His plans for the day, apart from trying to stay alive, were not yet known, and that was typical for most days. Jack had no idea what would happen when he woke up – would he be found yet again and have to shoot to survive, or would he need to leave Stuttgart for another city in Germany, or another country? Would this day be his last, or would it usher in the end of his exile, allowing him to return to the United States and to his family? Although his life was in danger all the time, he had fallen in love with the city of Stuttgart. This had been where his ancestors had lived for centuries, before the Bauer family had decided that a fresh start was needed in a fresh country, and so had made the journey north to Hamburg, then across the Atlantic, at first settling in New York before the Gold Rush had sent them West to California. He wondered what they would think of him, sitting in their ancestral city, on the run from two major world governments, one of them his own that he had loyally served for decades, the other one angry at him and wanting him dead.

**FDR Park, Philadelphia**

The whole car park had now been searched, with no sign of the cell phone, Teri or the people holding her. Attempts to call the phone had been unsuccessful, and as the weather became brighter, they knew that more people would be attracted to the park, which would make their search even more difficult. Silence had fallen over the group, before a ringing phone broke it.

"Yeah?," James answered, before listening to the caller for a few minutes, his face changing as he was fed information. Finally, he finished the call, before looking at the people gathered around him.

"That was Jane. One of our gang members has given us some new information. It looks like we might be wasting our time looking for the phone," he announced, before turning and beginning to walk back to the fleet of CTU vehicles.

"What do we do now?," Cole asked, and James stopped, before turning to look at him.

"There's one thing we can do, but it's risky," James replied, before moving forward once more.

**CTU Philadelphia**

Jane looked through the surveillance mirror at Kevin, and wondered what else they could do to find Teri. He had just told her minutes before that the phone would have been discarded hours ago, and that it was likely to be miles away from where Teri was. The past few hours had been different for Jane, a native of Pittsburgh who had joined CTU just a few years before, compared to how working at CTU normally was. Even though Philadelphia was a big and busy city, it saw few terrorist threats, especially compared to nearby New York or cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C and Chicago. She had, however, heard a lot about people like Jack Bauer and Alex Myers, and when she had been asked to come in early, James had mentioned Alex, and she had become curious about this well-known yet still mysterious figure in CTU history.

"_You mean the Alex Myers?," Jane had sleepily asked, certainly now more awake than she had been when the phone had shaken her out of sleep._

"_Yes. He's helping to find the kidnapped child of Kim Bauer," James replied, and Jane knew that it made sense. After all, Myers was seen as a protective friend of Kim Bauer, and even if he had tried to kill her father – although he did deny this, which meant they had to go through a trial even though he had readily admitted the murder of Chloe O'Brian – he still seem to care a lot about her._

_A while later, and Jane had found herself looking straight at Alex Myers. She had heard basic descriptions of what he looked like, although they now seemed slightly out of date. His dark hair was a mixture of dark brown and grey, his pale skin seemed to have a light tan, his face slightly wrinkled and his eyes seemed to both retain their bright blue colour, yet still show pain, regret and remorse. His Midwestern accent was still there, although there was a noticeable Californian twist to it now._

Walking into the interrogation room, she noticed that Kevin seemed to follow her movement with his eyes, as if he was afraid of her. She sat down at the table.

"I've told them about the phone being dumped, Kevin, now this is your chance to really help CTU and yourself. Do you know of any places where Teri may be being held?," Jane spoke, her voice friendly but firm.

"I don't, no. I just got paid to help get hold of Jack Bauer and kill him," Kevin spoke, his eyes occasionally moving between her face and the mirror behind her, as if he weren't sure what to look at.

"OK. So who paid you? Do you know why they wanted you to kill Bauer?," Jane responded.

"Richard paid me. He told me that he was working for some Russian guy, and that the Russian wanted Bauer dead," Kevin replied, his eyes finally resting on the table in front of him. Nodding, Jane stood up and decided that it was time for Richard to start giving up much more information.

**CTU convoy, Philadelphia**

"Can we manage to fool them a second time?," Cole asked sceptically as the convoy headed back to CTU. The plan, as announced by James once they had climbed back into the car, was to get the names of whoever was paying Richard and Kevin for their services, tell them that they had Jack Bauer – or, Alex pretending to be Jack – and would exchange the pair at a yet to be decided location.

"There seems to have been little communication between these people and their lackeys, who we have in custody. If Alex is OK with it, then we can go ahead. What do you think, Alex?," James spoke, before looking at Alex through the rear view mirror. Alex was sat in the back, listening to Cole and James as they talked, but he had some apprehension about this second attempt to fool the people holding Teri. He had been more than willing to risk dying to save Teri, but now there was a part of him that wanted survival, wanted freedom, and he wasn't sure whether to be ashamed or happy. He still wanted to save Teri, but the idea of risking his life seemed less acceptable.

"I can give it another try, sure," Alex replied, hoping that he had hidden the growing apprehension well, and hoping that he could stick to the plan. Once they had set up the exchange, and once they were within sight of Teri, there would be no going back, and after that point had been passed, who knew what would happen? He didn't know if they would kill him there, in full view of everyone, take him elsewhere to be killed or even if they would keep him alive but try to extract information from him before killing him. Deciding not to dwell on it, he remembered that it might not come to that, that they might be able to get Teri back safely without any risk to him.

"Good," James replied, and Alex wondered if he could tell that Alex was feeling a little more apprehensive about the plan than he had been earlier.

**CTU Philadelphia**

She knew that she had to be anything but Richard's friend as she walked into the room, and Jane made sure he knew that from the second he saw her. Unlike the more timid Kevin – Jane could only wonder how Kevin had been caught up in the plot, and allowed herself to feel some sympathy for him, even if he was involved in the kidnapping of a child – Richard was more thick-skinned, more of a defiant bastard than Kevin. She stood instead of sitting down, and the look in her eyes ordered Richard to look at them.

"Tell me who you are working for, Richard, and I might just see if we can knock a year off your imminent and very long stay in a Federal jail," Jane spoke, her voice free of all traces of kindness. Richard looked bored, and decided he didn't need to answer. Jane decided to encourage him by backhanding him across the face, before repeating her question.

"Let me out of here, and I'll give you all the information you need," Richard replied, his deep, innocent green eyes out of place on his hollow, wrinkled and scarred face.

"Who are you more afraid of, Richard? CTU or your bosses?," Jane asked.

"Neither. I can disappear as soon as I leave this building, without any trace," Richard replied, and Jane believed him. Maybe he had access to a large amount of money, or maybe there was some network of friends that he could rely on to spirit him away from Philadelphia.

"Then what are you afraid of, Richard? Why not tell us who you are working for if you fear neither us or them?," Jane asked, trying not to show him that she was confused and quite curious. What was this man hiding?

Then it dawned on her, and the look on her face amused Richard for a second.

"There is no one else, is there, Richard?," Jane asked. Turning around quickly, she moved out of the room and didn't stop walking until she was face to face with Kevin again.

"Have you ever seen these bosses of yours? The ones who are paying you?," Jane asked, her voice returning to the friendlier tone she had used to speak to Kevin earlier. He thought for a moment, before looking up at her.

"No, ma'am. I haven't seen them at all. Richard deals with them all the time, and he gives me the money they pay me," Kevin replied, and Jane stared to think quickly. If there were no other people involved, if Richard was indeed behind all of this, what did he have against Jack Bauer?

"Who took Teri from the school, Kevin? Was it Richard?," Jane asked, and Kevin nodded.

"He brought her back to the place where we were arrested, but he left with her in a car soon after," Kevin spoke.

Jane thanked him, before returning to the room with Richard in. Sparing no time in reaching him and grabbing hold of his neck with her hand, she stared into his eyes.

"Where is she?," Jane demanded, letting Richard know that she had new information from Kevin, but Richard seemed unconcerned.

**CTU convoy, Philadelphia**

The convoy was close to CTU now, and the car had been quiet for the past few minutes. Alex, with his newly rediscovered need to live, was trying hard not to show this. He looked out of the window as cars passed by on the other lanes of the road, as people lined the side walks. It had been a long time since he had really seen normal life, even before he had been jailed, and now he couldn't help but feel conflicted.

_The judge had been kind on him for pleading guilty early for Chloe's murder, but had sternly chastised him for pleading not guilty to the attempted murder of Jack Bauer. Either way, he was facing life behind bars, and alls the not guilty plea did was to cause a month long trial that ended as it was expected to. Now shackled, he was led out of the back entrance to the court and towards a van that would take him across much of California to his new home. He took the time to look around him and experience a city for the last time. As he was shoved into the van with little concern for his welfare, he sat down and sighed. Yes, he knew he deserved life in jail for what he had done to Chloe, but he felt anger that nothing was to be done about Jack killing Nina. He saw what had happened, everyone knew that, but for some reason his witnessing of the event, plus the fact that no one denied that Jack had killed Nina, seemed to be of little consequence. As the van began it's journey, Alex leant his head back and closed his eyes. _

They could see the CTU building now, and it would be only minutes before they would enter the underground parking lot. Stopping at traffic lights, Alex realised that if he were to jump out of the car, to run as fast as he could as far away as he could, then he would not need to risk his life. His hand brushed the handle of the door lightly, and he contemplated the risks of escaping. If he did and he was caught, there was no chance of him escaping the death penalty for Chloe's murder, but if he didn't, then he could be killed by the people who were holding Teri. As the lights turned yellow, he was about to make a decision, before having to move his hand suddenly as the door opened.

"Hey, I know we're almost at CTU, but I wanted to know how things were going," Kim spoke as Alex looked at her with surprise. He thought he could see someone moving towards the car, but it had only been when Kim had opened the door that he knew for sure.

"We've not heard anything else, Kim, but Jane's interrogating the pair as we speak. Maybe she's got some new information for us," Cole replied, turning his head to look at Kim.

Alex continued to watch as Kim nodded, before she closed the door and returned to her car. As they moved off again, Alex wondered if that had been a sign to stick with the plan.


	10. A Vital Word

**CTU Philadelphia**

As Alex, Cole and James led the group back into the building, Jane looked at them and waited until they were close enough to tell them what she had discovered.

"So, Richard is the only one who knows where Teri is?," Cole asked, at which Alex felt ashamed of his thoughts in the car. If he had waited for a few moments, if he had prevented his mind from wanting to put him before Teri, he would not have thought that he could just leave them to find Teri.

As Kim and Stephen went into the bull pen, James, Jane, Cole and Alex walked into the surveillance room adjacent to where Richard was being held.

"Should we be considering torture?," Cole asked, and Alex looked at him with surprise. It hadn't occurred to him that CTU might still be using torture, and he could only imagine what sort of torture was employed by CTU nowadays. He couldn't even name half the machines that seemed to be used in almost every room of the building.

"If that is what it takes," James replied, and Alex looked into the interrogation room. Richard seemed to be looking at the mirror, almost as if he could tell that they were behind it talking about him.

"Let me try, before we consider torture," Alex spoke, before walking into the interrogation room and sitting down.

"If you must know, my name is Alex Myers. I worked with Jack as a CTU agent in Los Angeles for a while," Alex spoke, although Richard seemed uninterested.

"Why are you targeting Jack? What do you have against him?," Alex asked.

"You want to find Teri, or do you want to know my motives?," Richard replied, and Alex nodded. It didn't seem that Richard was the type to talk too easily, even under threat of torture. That is, if he had any idea that he was minutes away from possibly being tortured.

"I want to find Teri, Richard. What is it going to take to get you to tell us where she is?," Alex asked.

"I already said to one of your agents, let me go and I'll tell you where she is," Richard responded, his voice firm. Alex realised that he was not going to easily get the information out of Richard. Calmly standing up, he walked slowly around to Richard, standing behind him, before pulling out his gun and cocking it. The sound made Richard jump, and Alex was sure that James and Cole were becoming worried.

"How about you tell me where Teri is, and I won't shoot you?," Alex spoke, his voice a dangerous whisper, and he waited for an answer. After a couple of minutes, he lowered the gun and fired into the ground close to where Richard's foot was, causing the prisoner to jump yet again.

"Tell me, Richard! Don't make me kill you!," Alex growled, remembering everything that had made him angry over the years. Nina's betrayal and her death. Eric's betrayal and working for the damn Salazar brother. Jack's selfishness in messing up his life after Kim risked hers to save his. Although he couldn't tell from where he was stood, Richard had paled, and he was now contemplating his options.

"I won't tell you," Richard squeaked, his eyes widening as he realised what he had said, and Alex had had enough. He pressed the gun against Richard's neck and pulled the trigger.

"OK, OK! She's in the barn!." Richard yelled, before realising that he was still alive.

"I only had one bullet in the gun, Richard, but thank you for telling me," Alex replied, and as he left the room, a satisfied smile grew on his face.

"Jesus, Alex!," Cole spoke. The moment Alex had pulled out his gun, Cole had been ready to head straight into the room, and his panic became even more urgent as Alex had pulled the trigger. Only Alex had known for sure that he had only one bullet left in his gun, and that was now embedded in the floor near where a very pale and shocked Richard sat.

"We've got no time to lose, get everyone in the cars!," James spoke. Things were now going so much more smoothly.

**Morris' house, Los Angeles**

Morris had given up trying to sleep and was now sat in his kitchen, sipping from a mug of tea. He looked out of his window at the lone tree that grew in his back garden, which he had planted soon after Chloe's funeral. It was still a young tree, but it was looked after well and Morris knew that it would outlive him as long as nothing happened to it.

_As the coffin was lowered into the ground, Morris could do nothing but look down at the wooden box containing the one woman he had truly loved, and he was sure that he could never match that level of affection and attraction towards another woman again. Then came the soil, placed over the coffin at first via handfuls of moist, black soil being gently poured into the grave by Morris and the other mourners, who included Jack, Kim, Michelle and others from CTU. The grave would be filled in completely later by the undertaker._

_The trial would be starting the day afterwards, and Morris was not looking forward to it, even if Alex had promised to plead guilty to murdering Chloe. He had had nightmares of Alex pleading not guilty instead and being acquitted, as if there had never been a crime committed, as if Chloe was still alive and probably watching the trial with interest._

"_You OK?," Michelle asked him quietly as the group of mourners moved away from the grave. He nodded slowly, not sure if he was or not._

"_I'll never get over her death, but perhaps I'll be somewhat OK," Morris replied softly. Michelle looked at him sympathetically. She had felt so angry at Alex for what he had done, even if she could in some way understand his motives. There had even been a meeting at Division a few days later where she had visited him, and she had left after a few minutes, angrily and uncharacteristically telling Alex that he could 'burn in Hell' and that he had betrayed everyone just as much as Nina had._

"_We'll all be there for you if you ever need us," Michelle had promised him, but just a few years later, he had attended her and Tony's funeral after they had been killed within hours of each other. Morris knew that few people truly left CTU, and that CTU rarely left anyone who had connections to it._

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Morris wondered what Alex would be doing at that moment. He had little idea of what happened in prisons, and even less of what Alex's daily schedule was like, but apart from needing to know that Chloe's murderer was locked up and unable to harm anyone else, he really couldn't care less about what Alex was doing.

_The trial was now underway, and Alex was about to plead. Morris looked down at the floor, unable to watch even though he knew that it was in everyone's best interests for Alex to plead guilty, and he knew that Alex was going to plead guilty anyway._

"_On the charge of the second-degree murder of Chloe O'Brian on the morning of Friday, October 14th, 2008, how do you plead?," was spoken, in an authoritative and demanding manner, et also devoid of emotion._

"_Guilty," Alex replied, his voice far more subdued. This plea came as no shock to anyone, and Morris was happy that it was almost over._

"_On the charge of attempted murder of Jack Bauer, also on the morning of Friday, October 14th, 2008, how do you plead?," the voice spoke again with the same authority as it had done with the first question. Morris wanted to look up, but he afraid of what Alex would say next._

"_Not guilty," Alex replied, his voice slightly nervous, and a murmur grew in the courtroom. There had been some rumours going around that Alex would not accept the charge of attempted murder, that he had never intended to kill Jack. Even so, he looked nervous and tried not to look at Jack, who was visibly furious._

**CTU convoy, Philadelphia**

The fleet of vehicles was speeding back towards the barn where CTU had captured Kevin and Richard, and the mood was tense in all three of the cars. In the front car, Alex, Cole and James were sat in silence as they headed towards a building that they hoped contained a very much alive little girl. In the second, Kim and Stephen along with a CTU agent called Nestor were also sat in silence, with both Kim and Stephen thinking of their daughter and hoping desperately that she was still alive, that they would be reunited with her and that the ordeal would be over. In the third and final vehicle were three more CTU agents, all of whom were well aware of who Jack Bauer was, and hoping that they could save the granddaughter of a man they had a lot of respect for.

"There was another door in the room they took me to, maybe that's where she is," Alex spoke. He tried hard to remember what the room looked like, whether he could have heard Teri if she had said anything. He was anxious to find her, but already part of him was thinking of Morris and of Jack. They had to be told of his pardon, and Alex had decided to tell Morris in person, as he believed it to be the only way to do so. He knew that Morris might react badly, but he wanted to show Morris what he had done, and maybe that would help soften the blow of knowing that Chloe's killer was out of jail just a decade after her death.

"We'll be there in five minutes. I hope we're not too late," Cole spoke. He remembered the last time he had seen Teri. It had been the last time Jack had set foot inside CTU, back in New York, and Kim and her family were about to head off home to Los Angeles. The kid was a sweet child, who seemed happy and clever, and Cole could tell that she would be making her dead namesake proud.

Alex looked out of the window and wondered if this was the same route that Kevin and Richard had taken when the gang had transported him to the barn, before they knew that he wasn't Jack Bauer at all. He glanced at James and Cole, and wondered how things would go once this was all over. He knew that he would never be a CTU agent due to his conviction – not that he wanted to be one ever again – but would they always see him as a possible suspect, just like they had when he was in jail? Would he not be able to get as far away from CTU as possible without CTU agents from the nearest city finding him and arresting him over some plot he had no idea of? His thoughts were interrupted as the car came to an abrupt stop, and he noticed the barn. Taking a deep breath, he climbed out of the car and began walking towards the building. He could hear Kim and Stephen talking as they walked behind him, and he was soon inside the barn. Now that it was daylight, he could see the inside of the building much better – the bodies of the gang members who had been killed in the shoot-out had been removed by Forensics, leaving behind drying pools of blood on the hay-covered floor. He approached the first internal door and firmly grabbed the door handle, pulling open the door, before standing in the doorway.

"Teri?," he called loudly, hoping to hear a small voice call back in response, but a minute passed without any reply. Calling her name again, he swore he could hear a voice inside the room at the far end. As Kim, Stephen and Cole entered the barn, he looked at them with a grin on his face. Finally, it seemed to be all over.

"I think she's in there!," shouted Alex, and he ran towards the door, but was unable to open the locked door. Deciding that Teri had waited enough to be reunited with her parents, he stood back, preparing to kick the old wooden door as hard as he could, as if it were guilty of the kidnapping itself.

"Teri, keep away from the door, OK?," Alex spoke clearly, trying not to show any emotion that might worry the little girl.

"OK," came the small voice from inside the room, and a few minutes later, Alex had kicked down the door and found Teri alive.


	11. Of Life And Of Death

_**A few days later...**_

**Morris' house, Los Angeles**

Alex stood close to the house, preparing himself for what was about to happen. Having been freed from prison, thanked and forgiven by Kim and flown back to California by CTU, he was now about to inform Morris of his pardon. He had a copy of it in his hand, and he had read and re-read it numerous times since he had rescued Teri from the barn. There had never been a real motive established for why Richard had taken Teri, but there was a rumour that he was a former CTU agent who had some sort of grudge against Jack, and Alex knew that, before he had transferred to Los Angeles from Chicago that Jack had made some enemies within CTU, even if most of the agency seemed to see him as some sort of hero.

Inside, Morris was sat at his kitchen table, reading the newspaper. He had no idea of who was at the door as the doorbell rang, and as he walked towards the door, he was unprepared for the surprise of seeing Alex Myers of all people at his door.

"Hello, Morris," Alex spoke, only temporarily making eye contact. He could see the shock on Morris' face.

"What are you doing out of jail?," Morris spoke quietly, but with an hint of fury that Alex knew would increase if he said the wrong thing in the wrong way, and he had no intention of hurting Morris any more than he had done already. Holding up the copy of his pardon slowly, he resumed eye contact with Morris.

"They pardoned me, Morris. I helped save Teri, Jack's granddaughter," Alex spoke, and Morris noticed the paper in his hand. Grabbing it, he read the document slowly, unable to believe it. Was it true? Did Alex really save Jack's granddaughter? He looked up at Alex, who was obviously uncomfortable with the situation, and Morris could only wonder why he had even been involved in saving Teri.

"You did?," Morris spoke, more out of disbelief than asking. He could see Alex doing such a thing, sure, but Alex and Jack had become anything but friends in the years after Chloe's murder.

"Morris, I only accepted the pardon so I could help Kim and help rescue her daughter. I didn't do it for myself," Alex spoke, and he could almost hear Morris thinking about this, about the idea that Chloe's murderer was now free, that the very same person who had tried to kill Jack Bauer had just helped save his granddaughter.

"_Kim, do you really think your father would want you to go through life without living?," Morris said. It was a few months before her marriage to Stephen, and she was already having doubts about the wedding. She had concerns that Stephen would be in danger just by marrying a Bauer, concerns that she would lose him in tragic circumstances, concerns that some ghost from CTU would come and haunt them. This was why she was talking to Morris for the first time in years._

"_No, he wouldn't. I guess I just can't see beyond gloomy possibilities," Kim replied, her eyes looking down into her half-empty coffee mug. Jack was currently nowhere to be found, although a CIA agent had been certain that she had seen him in India the previous year. Kim didn't want to get married without her father, but she knew that if she waited for him to come back, she might never go through with it. Not that either her or Stephen saw marriage as an essential part of their relationship, but she still wanted to be married to him._

"_You've been through some terrible things, Kim, and now maybe it's time for you to have some happiness. I lost Chloe firstly because of my alcohol problem, and secondly when she was killed, and maybe I'm not the most suitable of people to be talking about moving on and being happy when I've not truly gotten over Chloe's death, but you've got so much life ahead of you," Morris spoke, his eyes gazing at a picture of himself and Chloe, taken some years before her death. Whilst others had seen her personality in a negative light, it had only been seen as positive to Morris._

Even though he had finished reading minutes before, Morris took his time to raise his head back up from the document to look at Alex again. He could tell that prison had certainly had a physical effect on him, but he still wondered if there really had been any point to the ten years of being behind bars that Alex had experienced.

"I can't forgive you, at least not just yet," Morris spoke quietly but firmly, not willing to look weak in front of Chloe's murderer. He looked at Alex, who seemed to not be surprised at the statement - after all, Alex had been remorseful from the start and had pleaded guilty quickly, even if they did have to go through a trial due to his insistence that he had not attempted to murder Jack at all.

"I don't deserve it, Morris, I just came to tell you about the pardon, and to apologise," Alex replied, and the tone of his voice told Morris that he meant it.

"What are you going to do now?," Morris asked. He assumed that as Alex now had no ties to Los Angeles, he would most likely leave California, and as he couldn't work for CTU anymore, he would have to find some other job.

"I'm thinking of moving to Philadelphia, where Kim and her family are. I don't know what to do with the rest of my life, Morris, but I promise you it will be something constructive," Alex spoke, and Morris nodded slowly. Alex sounded sincere, and the promise would certainly help him accept the pardon, and Morris truly hoped that Alex would indeed do something constructive with the three, maybe four, decades he was likely to have left.

"Good luck, Alex," Morris said, and he held out his hand. Shaking hands with Morris seemed to be a rather bizarre act, but it meant that in some way, there had been redemption for him in Morris' eyes. Turning around, he walked to the gate, but stopped to face Morris again.

"I think about her every day, Morris, and I hope I never wake up to a day that I don't," Alex spoke, and a smile grew on Morris' face.

"I do as well, Alex. Every day," Morris replied.

**BND building, Stuttgart, Germany**

The room was tense as Jack Bauer walked through it. This building housed the Stuttgart branch of the German foreign intelligence service BND, or the Bundesnachrichtendienst. Noone knew who the American walking past their desks was, but as far as they knew, it was simply a CIA agent who was cooperating with the BND on some German-American issue. Approaching the office of the head of this particular branch, Jack took a deep breath. After all, this was a guy he had met before. He knocked quietly and somewhat reluctantly on the door.

"_Geben sie, bitte", _called out a voice, asking Jack to enter. Slowly pushing open the door, he came face to face with the surprised but smug Theo Stoller.

"Jack Bauer, what a surprise. Of course, I should have guessed that 'Curtis Manning' was not the man I should have expected. If I now remember correctly, you shot him dead, didn't you?," Stoller spoke in English, his accent slightly more American – BND agents were often taught English by trusted Americans who lived in Germany.

Not bothering to respond to Stoller, Jack sat down and wasted no time in speaking.

"I suppose you know what's been going on in my life for the past few years?," Jack spoke, and Theo's features became more serious. He certainly knew what Jack had been getting up to, and he didn't like the idea of Jack Bauer being in his office, or even his country.

"Yes, I do, but what really concerns me, Jack, is that I've had reports of a blond American running around my city killing various Russian and Eastern European agents, as if it were still the Cold War. May I remind you that Germany was literally in the middle of America and the Soviet Union during those years? My father was a BND agent, and I know all too well what your country and the Soviets got up to in Germany," Theo replied, and Jack could tell that this was not going to be an easy meeting, especially in regards to what he wanted to get out of it.

"They are trying to kill me, I am just defending myself," Jack spoke. He knew that it was risky to seek help from any intelligence agency, never mind one which was somewhat friendly to the United States. He had been in London for a few months before moving on to Germany, and not once had he considered asking MI5 or MI6 for help – he would have been on the first plane back to the States if he had. The Germans, although still allies and friends with the United States, were not as close to the Americans and Jack felt that he could consider them if he decided to seek their help.

"And what do you suggest my agency can do to help you, Jack? Offer you protection?," Theo spoke, his eyes fixed on Jack's face. He was willing to help Jack in some way, but only as much as he himself was comfortable with.

"I want you to help me fake my death, Theo," Jack replied.

**CTU Los Angeles, Los Angeles**

It had been a rather surreal moment when Alex had approached the guard who was monitoring people coming into the building. The guard had no idea who he was until he had spoken his name, and as the pardon was only really known to the agents, he had looked at Alex with worry, until Alex pulled out the pardon and showed it to him. After that, he had walked into the main bullpen and, although he knew that CTU was certainly going to look different, he was shocked to see just how. The number of technological devices in the room was close to countless, and there must have been thirty or fourty people all working at computers or various other devices. Noticing a rather officious looking woman, he approached her.

"Are you Director Yassir?," he spoke, and the woman, who had been busy looking at a computer screen showing something totally alien to anything Alex had seen when he had been a CTU agent, looked up at him.

"Yes, and you are?," Nadia replied, and Alex could only assume that she knew of the pardon. After all, she worked at CTU Los Angeles, where he had done so a decade before.

"I'm Alex Myers," Alex spoke, and the background noise of the room suddenly fell slightly, and although most people seemed to be still working, he could tell that some were staring at him, and others were listening intently to whatever conversation was about to unfold.

"I didn't expect to see you here, Alex. Any reason for the visit?," Nadia spoke, somewhat indifferent to his announcement of who he was.

"I just came to see how CTU looked nowadays. I was at the Philadelphia branch for a while, and it all seems so futuristic, so different," Alex replied, a slight feeling of envy creeping into his mind, before realising that the new developments were there because terrorism must have increased, must have become stronger since his imprisonment. Whilst they did have access to newspapers and a television in jail, Alex rarely read the papers offered or watched the television.

"We've moved on a lot since 2008, Alex. You're remained somewhat of a myth in this building, you know? You, Jack Bauer, your sister, Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, all of these people that left CTU so long ago," Nadia spoke, and Alex could sense a sadness in her voice.

"I visited Morris earlier," Alex said, and Nadia nodded. She had worked with Morris before the closure of CTU, and the murder of his ex-wife was forever on his mind, even when he was at work.

"He worked here for a while, at the same time as myself. How is he?," Nadia asked. She had never experienced losing a loved one in the way Morris had – although Milo had been in love with her, she had been unsure, although when he had sacrificed himself for her, it felt more painful than she expected.

"He's doing OK, I suppose, but maybe he was hiding a lot from me. After all, why would he want to look defeated by the loss of Chloe in front of the man who murdered her?," Alex replied.

**BND building, Stuttgart, Germany**

Theo paced as he considered a lot of things. He was OK with helping Jack fake his death, but he was not OK with it being traced back to him, his agency or Germany. Therefore, it would require the act itself to be executed outside of the country, and Theo knew just the place.

"Jack, come back here at 9 in the morning and I will have more to tell you. I can't make any promises, though," he spoke, and Jack rose before nodding.

"Thanks, Theo, thank you," Jack replied, and he sounded as if he meant it, which he did, and as he walked out of the door he knew that he was a step closer to seeing his family again. It didn't matter if he was using a fake name, or if he had plastic surgery to alter his appearance, alls that did matter was that he could be with his family again.


	12. As Our Paths Meet

_**A few hours later...**_

**Plane, heading to Philadelphia International Airport from LAX**

The plane was passing over the Midwest as it continued on it's transcontinental journey from West to East. Alex, now a free man, was sat next to a window, watching as the land, far below him and everyone else on the plane, pass by. It was close to the evening as far as he could tell, and the land was beginning to disappear into a carpet of black punctuated only by the brightest of lights. Slowly closing the blind over the window, he sat back and closed his eyes, tired and wanting a few hours sleep before the plane landed in Philadelphia.

_The corridor was typical of CTU – dark, slightly chilly and the only signs of human life were when the occassional agent or staff walked down the gloomy halls. Alex could see Chloe up ahead, walking briskly as she headed towards the tech room, and he knew that if he was to have any chance of saving Nina, he had to take it soon. His fingers were tight against the wooden handle of the hammer, as if he was forcing himself to keep hold of it, to do the necessary evil that would save his sister. Silently, he walked as quickly as he could to catch up to her, and got so close that if she were to turn around, she would see both him and the hammer, and she wasn't stupid, she would quickly realise what he was doing, and everything would be ruined. He had told himself that to kill her quickly without her knowing what hit her was the most humane way to get it over with, like a countdown to an execution that stops a second earlier than the condemned person believes it will._

_He raised the hammer slowly, but then she stopped walking, and he froze even though his mind screamed at him to send the hammer crashing down onto her head. He watched as she started to turn around, and down came the hammer, smashing open her skull before she slumped to the ground. As slowly as he had raised it, Alex lowered the hammer, before letting it drop to the ground. He could see her face now, but it wasn't Chloe at all._

_The dream, as always, ended with him looking down at his recently deceased sister._

Alex woke quickly, looking around with confusion until he remembered where he was. It was a common dream of his, never seeming to get any less shocking, even though his mind had seen it all before, and his mind had created the whole scene. It was like the tape was wiped clean, before the next time his subconcious decided he had to see the footage.

"Are you OK?," a voice asked, and he turned to his right to see a elderly woman sat next to him. She had spoken to him earlier, and had told him that she was a retired nurse flying back to her childhood hometown to spend some time with her grandchildren. As far as she knew, Alex was visiting a friend in Philadelphia.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. Just a bad dream," Alex replied, as the dream stubbornly remained in his thoughts, which it would do for some hours. The elderly lady, a woman named Connie, smiled and returned to her book.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

It was nighttime in Germany, and Jack was wandering around the city aimlessly. In less than ten hours, he would be in Theo Stoller's office again, and he didn't know what to expect. Would Theo really help him, or would he find himself in the custody of either the Russians or his own country? He watched as a dark car silently moved past him, the windows tinted so he had no idea who was inside, and he really couldn't have cared any less, especially as he was close to his hotel. However, the car came to a stop a short distance ahead of him, and he became wary of the occupants. Walking slowly, he continued walking, one hand ready to grab his concealed handgun if necessary.

"Hey," came a voice from inside the car, and Jack made a quick decision to ignore it. If they had any idea who he was, they wouldn't be approaching him in this way, and if they didn't then he had no desire to find out what they wanted. As the car disappeared behind him, Jack wondered if he should turn around, but it was too late as a dark sack was pulled over his head, his gun taken from him, his hands tied behind him, and his whole body unceremoniously pushed into the car, which sped off at speed. Jack could feel himself being moved into a sitting position, and he wondered if they were going to keep the sack on his head until they got to wherever they were heading.

"Do you know who I am?," Jack asked, and he wasn't sure if he wanted them to know who he was or not. No reply came, and Jack started to repeat his question, before a fist punched him hard in the stomach. The effects of the hit were made even worse by having a sack over his head and his hands tied behind him, and it took him a while to recover from the punch.

"We will ask the questions, not you," came a reply, and Jack desperately tried to match the accent with a country or even a continent, but the speaker may as well have been a robot, as his voice was almost accentless. Alls Jack could tell was that the speaker was male, probably a smoker, and probably knew who he was.

"We saw you at the BND building today, Bauer. Feeling desperate?," the voice continued, and Jack felt a strange sense of contentment at the confirmation that they knew who he was. Hesitating to speak in case he was hit again, Jack built up the nerve to reply.

"No, not at all, just catching up with an old friend," Jack replied dryly, and for that he was rewarded with another punch to the stomach. The man did not waste time in replying, and Jack found it hard to understand the man at first.

"Perhaps your luck has finally run out, Bauer? We'll arrive at our destination in a short while. Depending on what you say there, we might consider not giving you to the Russians," the man spoke, and Jack grew confused. What could he possibly tell this guy? The fact that this man was likely to hand him over to the Russians suggested that he wasn't American, or at least was not friendly to the American government. It also told him that this person expected some sort of information from him, and Jack tried hard to think of anything that he could possibly have that this person wanted to hear.

**Plane, heading for Philadelphia International Airport**

Alex had fallen back to sleep, and was not dreaming, which allowed him to sleep better. The airplane chair he was sat in was not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was far better than what passed for a bed in prison. There, he had endured many sleepless nights, and they were just as bad as the ones that were filled with the bad dreams. Nights without sleep were often spent trying not to think of past events, but they came flooding into his thoughts whether he wanted them there or not. The plane was quiet, most of it's passengers either asleep or quietly reading, all awaiting their arrival in Philadelphia for any number of reasons – visiting friends or family, business, pleasure or, in Alex's case, starting a new life away from the old one that was seperated from the present by a decade in a Federal jail. He had already found an apartment he could rent, close to where Kim lived with her family, and now he had to decide how he would spend the rest of his life. His promise to Morris that the remaining decades would be spent constructively would not be forgotten easily, and Alex had already come up with some ways to fulfill that promise.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

As the vehicle came to a gentle stop, Jack tried to figure out how far away they were from the hotel, but there was little chance to think straight as he was quickly forced out of the car, then marched some distance, noticing that they were inside when he stopped feeling the chilly night breeze and the light sprinkling of drizzle. A door was opened ahead of him, and he was quickly brought to his knees, before the door slammed shut behind him.

"Leave him here for now, the boss will talk to him soon," the accentless man spoke, and Jack could hear three sets of footsteps walk further into the room, before the quiet creak of a more distant door told him that they had left and, as soon as they did, Jack attempted to free himself from his restraints, although the bag over his head was more than a nuisance to his struggle. Giving up, he lowered his head slightly, and closed his eyes. Would he be killed that night, or would he end up spending months in some remote jail being tortured, just like the Chinese had done to him several years before?

"_Have you had enough, Bauer? You've been through this pain, this suffering every day for ten months. Surely you must be close to telling us something we would love to know," the Chinese interrogator spoke, his voice deceptively gentle, his English probably obtained from living abroad for many years. Jack looked up at him and said nothing._

"_Don't you have anything to tell us?," the interrogator continued, but the blood running down Jack's chin, the bruises around his cheekbones and the burn marks on his chest had made Jack even more determined to stay silent. They could damage his body all they wanted, their torture was not the worst pain he had ever felt._

"_Tzi, perhaps we need to push Mr Bauer a bit harder?," the man spoke, this time to a younger man stood nearby. Tzi had been the one who inflicted the actual physical pain on Jack, and as he reached for another of his torture tools, Jack braced himself._

"We just put him over here for now," the accentless man spoke, and Jack lifted his head again, although the sack over his head meant that he was totally blind until it was removed. That came quicker than expected, and he could see the accentless man now. He was a middle-aged white man, with short dark hair, small brown eyes and wearing what appeared to be some sort of military camoflague, although he didn't look at all like someone who had been in the military.

"Hello, Jack. I'm sorry for the wait, but my associate assures me that he is looking forward to meeting you," the accentless man continued, before turning around to a smaller figure who was stood in the shadows.

"Make sure he doesn't try and escape. If he does, put the sack back on his head and knock him out with the tranq gun," the accentless man spoke, before dropping the sack on the floor and leaving the room. Jack looked over at David and noticed a short, blond man probably no more than twenty years old, and he wondered how David was involved in the plot. He was about to ask, but somehow the young man preempted his question.

"No talking, Bauer," David warned, his voice somewhat more authoritative than Jack would have expected from such a young person, but Jack also noticed that David spoke in an American accent. It sounded sort of like he would expect someone from Kansas or Nebraska to speak, and Jack wondered if this "associate" he was about to meet would also be American.

**Oval Office, White House**

"And the Germans can confirm that it was Jack Bauer?," President Mitchell Hayworth said as he spoke on the phone to some CTU bureaucrat. Following the resignation of President Allison Taylor just over a year ago, he had replaced her as the President, and hoped to be elected as President in his own right at the next elections, although it had been a struggle just to get to Acting President.

"Yes, Mr President, Bauer was seen at the BND building in Stuttgart this afternoon," the voice replied, the person himself being sat in an office at CTU DC.

"Any ideas why he was there?," Hayworth asked.

"We've been asking around, but noone knows except for Theo Stoller, Mr President. It seems that he knows something and doesn't want to share."

"Fair enough, I guess we'll have to go over his head. I'll be calling Chancellor Schultz in the morning," Hayworth replied. If the German intelligence agencies weren't going to cooperate, he knew that he could always go right over their heads and go straight to the German leader. Schultz had been elected earlier in the year, and he was quite friendly towards the United States, and Hayworth was depending on that friendliness to get the answers he wanted.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

It wasn't until David left the room that Jack realised something was about to happen, and as he looked at the distant door with anticipation, he heard the door behind him open and shut quietly, before a few footsteps told him that someone was stood behind him. It wasn't until he heard the voice that he realised just who the associate was.

"Hello again, Jack," Tony spoke.


	13. Past Is Present

_Although he knew of what had happened at CTU in the hours after his arrest, Alex had no idea that he would cross paths with Tony Almeida in the middle of the desert prison that he now called home, a few months after that fateful night. A cool January breeze was flowing through the exercise yard, and Alex watched as Tony approached, unsure of what he wanted._

"_Alex," Tony spoke quietly, looking down at Alex, who was sat on the ground, his back against a wall. Alex could tell that Tony was not caring too much about his hygiene whilst in prison, and the dark stubble that covered his face seemed to be a few weeks old._

"_I wouldn't have thought they would send you here," Alex replied, emphasising 'they' with bitterness, and 'you' with surprise. Although he knew that there were only a limited number of federal prisons within California, Alex had assumed that Tony would at least be held somewhere in the south of the state, near Michelle._

"_Neither would I, but they did," Tony spoke, sitting down next to Alex, his eyes gazing out past the fences and onto the vast desert in front of them, it's presence like a warning not to try and escape, unless you had a death wish. Alex's eyes were on the ground in front of him, the sun even at this time of year not an attractive option._

"_Did he really take part in Nightfall?," Alex asked, and Tony looked quickly at him in surprise, before realising that he was referring to Saunders. Someone probably told him some things but left out others. Tony decided to be honest._

"_Yes, he wanted revenge because the US Government abandoned him in Serbia. The Serbians tortured him. Doesn't matter now, he's dead, Gael's widow killed him," Tony spoke, and the mention of Nightfall was still echoing in his head. It wasn't easy for any of them to forget the day Drazen had attempted to get his revenge on Jack and Palmer. He noticed that Alex seemed to be trying to suppress something, and he guessed it was anger. Anger that Nightfall had returned, anger that Amador and Saunders had sent his sister to her death, anger that Jack Bauer, the person whose mistakes had caused everything, was still alive, still able to try and carry on, still able to consider the possibility of one day having a normal, happy life._

"Sir? Are you OK? We've landed," the flight attendant spoke, his hand shaking Alex's shoulder gently. Alex looked up at him with confusion until his brain caught up with the rest of him. They had landed in Philadelphia and, as Alex stood up, he could tell that most of the passengers had already left the plane. Trying to forget the dream he had just had, Alex made a mental note to call Kim and let her know that he was back in the city.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

"What the hell are you doing here, Tony?," Jack asked, his voice hoarse but still conveying the shock and anger that Jack felt, although he knew that he was in no position to do anything about it. He watched as Tony crouched down in front of him.

"You know why I'm here, Jack," Tony replied, his voice firm. Jack wondered if Tony still wanted revenge, and knew that if he was in Tony's place, he would not stop until he had either avenged his wife, or was dead in the ground. He knew that, he had done so himself, and who was he to be the judge, jury and executioner? Didn't Tony deserve revenge as much as himself? Jack wondered why he was thinking of such things, it didn't matter, he had to defend himself. He wasn't the one who had killed Michelle, but he had stopped Tony's revenge a few years before, but Tony was putting civilians in danger and needed to be stopped. Jack realised that he couldn't say for sure that he hadn't done the same – what if Nina had indeed been able to tell them more about Amador? What if her information would have saved the hundreds who died in the hotel? What if, by removing someone he saw as a threat to innocents, he had killed innocents?

Tony could almost see the activity in Jack's mind as he watched his former friend, and he wished he could tell what Jack was thinking. That had been something that Nina could do with ease, but at the same time, Jack could tell what she was thinking just as well.

"Jack, stop thinking for one moment. This isn't going to be something psychological, it's going to be simple, and it's going to be quick," Tony spoke, although in his mind Tony had no idea what he wanted to do. Could he really just fire a bullet in the heart of his former friend and walk away, feeling that he had found some sort of vengeance? He couldn't just walk away and let Jack go now, that was for sure. It had all been so easy when the moment he would meet Jack for the first time since DC was just something in the future, but now that he was living that moment, he felt a confusion he had not felt in some time.

"Tony, killing me will solve nothing," Jack spoke, although he was sure that maybe Tony knew that it wouldn't, that he just needed to do something to be able to die one day knowing that he took some action to avenge Michelle. If Tony couldn't get to the man truly responsible, he could still get to someone who was part of it, even passively.

"And did killing Nina solve anything, Jack? What about President Logan? What if you had killed him? Teri's still dead, Jack, and so is Renee," Tony answered, and Jack looked surprised that Tony knew of his attempt to kill Logan moments before the former President had shot himself – neither were publicly known, and the President's death had been attributed to a heart attack rather than a bullet in his brain. As for killing Nina, Jack had known from the moment that Nina took her last breath that it solved nothing, that even if she could do no harm to anyone else, there were still many others out there who could. Perhaps they were just the same – people filled with anger who needed to channel that anger through destructive action. Perhaps they both knew that vengeance solved nothing, but the action solved their hateful anger.

"Thought I told you to stop thinking, Jack?," Tony spoke, and Jack wondered if he was going to shoot him right there.

**Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia**

Alex was sat in the back of a cab heading into the city, still thinking of that one last, short dream he had on the plane. It was a new dream for him, and certainly unusual, as Tony was rarely in his dreams and if he was, it was usually some flashback to CTU or to the night he killed Chloe. Deciding not to worry about the dream until tomorrow, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax – the past had come back to him enough for a while.

_For some reason, even though Alex cared little for what date it was, or even what day of the week it was, the date of Nina's murder always seemed to arrive with him sitting up in his bed, sweat pouring down his body, the darkness of his prison cell reminding him of the sterile gloom of a CTU corridor late at night. Every time he heard the gunshots, every time he saw her lifeless eyes staring upwards, every time he saw Jack's face with it's conflicting messages of what he was thinking at that moment. Getting out of bed, he looked through the small cell window, which gave him a view of the desert. It was a clear night, and the moon and stars looked so much more alive, more numerous than they ever did back in the cities he had lived in. They illuminated the vast desert, tiny shadows created from rocks as well as parts of the prison building. It was a calming sight, and every time the date arrived, every time he woke up from the nightmare, he would go to the window and stare until the sun came up, noone else being aware of this annual ritual. Not even his cellmate, who seemed to sleep through every night with barely a snore, something unusual in any prison, never mind one containing federal prisoners. The best part was that it always seemed to be a clear night, as if the moon and the stars were expecting him at that precise moment._

**CTU New York, New York**

Cole sipped reluctantly on lukewarm coffee as he was informed of Jack's disappearance in Germany. What little information they had told him nothing that would help them find Jack, and he was running theory after theory through his mind – and Alex was involved in at least a few of them. Although he wanted to dismiss any possibility of Alex being involved, he knew deep down that Alex certainly had a motive, but did he have the means or the opportunity?

"From what we can tell, Jack appeared on a security camera somewhere on _Charlottenstrasse, _but he went into a blind spot and, if he carried on along that road, he should have been seen on _Blumenstrasse, _but he didn't. We've had the German police search the area, but as far as we can tell, he left that street in a vehicle, or entered one of the buildings," Peter Clarke, the head of CTUNYC, said to the small group of weary-eyed agents. He ran a hand through his thinning dirty blond hair, before sighing quietly. Like most of the other agents, he too had reluctantly dragged himself out of bed to return to work. He also felt the same as them, that there was little that they could do for Jack, especially with an ocean and half a continent separating them.

"Are the German cops tracking down every vehicle that went through that street when Jack was there?," Cole asked.

"Yes, although it's proving to be difficult. The street is busy even in the late evening, so there's a long list of vehicles to check," Peter replied. He had seen the list himself, and there were so many cars that could have carried Jack out of that street that he truly believed it would be too late for Jack by the time they found him. _If_ they found him.

**Cab, Bartram Avenue, Philadelphia**

Waking up in the back of the cab, Alex cursed under his breath. It almost, almost, felt like one of those days. Noticing that the cab driver was parking up, nowhere near their destination, Alex looked around curiously.

"Is there a problem?," Alex asked as he gazed into the rear view mirror. He could see the driver's kindly, middle-aged eyes, which were the same colour, Alex noticed, that Michelle's eyes were, although they were set in a darker, older, masculine face.

"Not a problem exactly, but I got a call from my boss, telling me to stop here," Evan, the cab driver, replied, his voice tired and marked by a deep Philadelphia accent, as if he had never stepped out of the city in his life. Alex looked around, expecting anything to happen. He wondered why they had to stop at this precise location, or did the location mean nothing? Was something about to happen out of nowhere, or was it something benign? Maybe the cab just had a problem that Evan was unaware of, or maybe it was something else just as unconnected to him. Suddenly a crackly voice spoke quite loudly on the radio, and Alex wondered how he had managed to stay asleep whilst that voice had asked Evan to park up.

"Evan, you need to go back to the Airport. A chopper's waiting there for your passenger," the voice, a much more New Jersey-accented voice, spoke. She didn't give any more information, but Alex knew who had sent the chopper, and he wondered why. Evan, sighing, started up the car. Even at night it was busy around the airport, and with this delay he would miss out on more passengers.

**Stuttgart, Germany**

"Thought you said this thing was going to be quick?," Jack asked as Tony talked to one of his lackeys. It had been a while since Tony had last spoken to him, and he was wondering why he wanted to gain Tony's attention again. Was he just tired, wanting everything to be over once and for all, or was he hoping that he could come up with something to save his life? Tony, who was now staring at Jack as he spoke to the other man, finished his conversation, before walking over to where Jack knelt and crouched down in front of him.

"It will be, but first I need to sort out a few things. I can't just walk out of this building and vanish into thin air, Jack, I need a plan," Tony spoke. Although he did have a destination in mind for after he killed Jack, the journey was hard to plan out, and Tony knew that it would be dangerous.

_Tony muttered under his breath as the small plane flew into German territory from Austria, glad that his fake German papers had enabled him to pass through with few checks. The Canadian passport he had used to fly to Vienna was sort of a possible risk, having used the name Michael Dessler, but he had insisted upon the name. He was risking his life to avenge Michelle, and using this alias comforted him in some strange way, as if Michelle was right there with him._

"_Tony, we'll be landing near Stuttgart, but we got to be careful, our German moles tell us that the police in the region are on high alert. Nothing to do with us, but we got to be as inconspicuous as possible," David informed him. Tony had met him in prison, and he had convinced David that if he was to help him, he would make sure he was well rewarded. Of course, Tony would reward him, he had an account filled with money, but whether he or David would survive to be able to use the money was something neither of them knew. The money was from some anonymous backer, and Tony was suspicious of why this person would help him get revenge for Michelle, but he also realised that it didn't matter to him, as long as he was successful and as long as whoever was kind enough to bankroll the operation didn't stab them in the back like so many others -. Tony took a deep breath, it was useless thinking of all the people who had betrayed him, and he needed to keep his mind clear. Sighing quietly, he looked out of the window and wondered._


	14. A Journey And A Reunion

A short while after the helicopter had left Philadelphia, Alex found himself walking into CTUNYC, and as he did, he realised that Jack had been here with his family at one point, that Cole's girlfriend had been a mole here, in the finest CTU tradition of course, and that maybe this place had it's own dark memories floating without respite through the corridors. Walking into the conference room, he noticed Cole immediately, but the rest were unknown to him. A blond man, who was stood at the head of the table, was the first to speak.

"You must be Alex. I guess we should tell you what all of this is about," Peter spoke with a monotone voice. "There's a situation unfolding in Germany involving Jack Bauer. He's missing and there's something foul about the circumstances."

"Are you suspecting me of involvement in his disappearance?," Alex replied, the words sounding annoyed. Shaking his head quickly, Peter explained.

"Not at all, but we need CTU agents on the ground in Stuttgart, and I thought it would be a good idea for you to go along with Cole and the others," Peter spoke, and Alex furrowed his brow. Did he have to be involved simply because it was Jack? A darker thought, that they were simply trying to lure him into a trap, flashed through his mind, but why would they? As far as he knew, Jack had no idea of his pardon and release from jail.

"I thought he was on the run from the government, as well as from the Russians?," Alex asked, remembering the conversation he had with Cole about Jack's activities in the past decade. Even if they did find him and ensured that he was safe, what then? Release him back onto the streets of Stuttgart and hope that neither the American or Russian government knew of his whereabouts? If CTU knew, chances were that the President knew.

"Officially, yes, but unofficially, our government are willing to turn a blind eye to his returning home, if that is necessary. If they had told us sooner, we would have him home with his family already, but President Hayworth only made the decision to look the other way tonight. So, if we can find Jack, we can get him back here, although he'll have to change his identity and keep a very low profile," Peter said, and Alex wondered if such a plan would work. According to Cole, Jack had once faked his death, yet even then he was dragged back into the terrorist and counter-terrorist worlds.

"_So he was shot, but they pretended he was dead?," Alex asked Cole, as if to clarify what had happened – Jack Bauer faking his death was not something that would surprise anyone that knew him._

"_Yes, and the people who knew that he was still alive ended up being killed, except for Tony," Cole replied. Both Michelle Dessler and President Palmer had died violent and untimely deaths that day, and it had brought Jack back to CTU, not exactly a place Jack loved to be. Alex remembered the day that Jack had visited him to inform him of the deaths, although Jack had said that Tony had died as well. It was only after the pardon and the events a few days before that Alex had found out that Tony was actually still alive._

"_I'm surprised that they didn't drag me into CTU that day, they usually did if something major happened. Of course, I told them the truth every time – that I had no involvement in what was going on, that I had no interest in what was going on, and that I had no contact with anyone outside of the jail," Alex spoke, his voice weary as he repeated words that he had said many times before to a CTU agent, usually to the Director. Soon after he was jailed, Erin Watson had been the director of CTULA, and Alex had met her a few times. Then things changed and Erin was replaced by Bill Buchanan, but for a while he had not heard of anyone from CTU, although Cole had explained to him that CTU was shut down for a few years. Alex didn't ask why._

"We'll be heading to Stuttgart within the hour. We'll meet with some BND agents there, and hopefully we'll have much more information on what's going on by then," Cole spoke, his eyes trained on a screen that showed a map of Stuttgart, his hands pointing first to the airport, then to some place where Alex assumed they would meet these BND agents.

"So, are you willing to help us, Alex?," Peter looked at Alex, who decided that there were many reasons to help Jack – for Kim's sake, for Teri's sake and maybe even for Jack's sake. Nodding, he could only hope that the mission would go well, but with Jack and CTU involved, nothing was guaranteed.

**Kim's house, Philadelphia**

Although it was close to dawn, Kim had not slept at all. Alex had apparently slipped off all radars, and her attempts to contact CTU New York had been fruitless. At one point, she had almost begun to believe that she had dreamt up the past few days and that Alex was still in jail, that Teri had never really been kidnapped. Sighing, she sat up in bed and checked the clock, the glowing yellow numbers hurting her eyes slightly.

"Stephen? Are you awake?," Kim asked quietly, shaking her husband's shoulder gently as to ensure an answer from him.

"I am now, yeah. Is everything OK?," Stephen replied drowsily, before turning around to face Kim.

"Should I be worried about Alex? He's just slipped away and I don't know where he is, or whether he's even still alive!," Kim spoke. She wondered why she was so bothered – it had only been a few hours since Alex had last spoken to her, and he was certainly capable of looking after himself.

"He's probably asleep at home, Kim, like you should be," Stephen said, before letting out a quiet yawn.

"I hope so," Kim spoke, before lying back down. She knew that she would hardly sleep at all, fixated on worries about her friend.

**Stuttgart Airport**

As they landed, Alex looked out of the window at the German city as the early morning light flooded through into the otherwise dark plane.

"Bet it's going to be strange, isn't it? Meeting Jack again?," Cole spoke. He knew that Jack had visited Alex a few times whilst he was in jail, but this would be very different. If they found Jack, what would happen? Would Alex use the gun he had to shoot him, or would the meeting be without violence of any sort between the two?

"That's if we find him. Don't worry, I have no intention of finishing anything," Alex replied, and he was sure that he did indeed have no intention. Of course, he couldn't tell for sure how he would truly react when he saw Jack, but he knew that he had to keep any thoughts of ending Jack's life out of his mind, if not for Jack, then for Kim and for Morris.

_It was a strange dream, but it was one that Alex often found oddly satisfying. He was driving down a street somewhere, in some anonymous city, when he noticed Jack walking down the sidewalk._

_Parking up quietly, Alex watched Jack as he walked down the street with no idea of his presence, but as he got out of the car, a gun in his hand, he slammed the door to alert Jack, who must have been unarmed because he suddenly turned and ran around a corner into an alleyway, and Alex decided that enough was surely enough._

_Alex was furious as he ran down the alleyway, with Jack not far ahead of him. The surface was uneven and jagged, and as Jack tripped and fell, he let out a groan as his knee made contact with a lump of concrete that stuck out of the ground like a fist. As Jack tried to get back up, he heard a gun click, and he realised that Alex wasn't going to let him get out of there alive. Regrets and guilty thoughts flashed through his mind, as he knelt down in the wet alleyway, his eyes fixed on a pool of water on the ground in front of him. He knew that in a few minutes, the pool would be a mixture of the rain and his blood, as his body would lie within it until he would be discovered._

_Alex walked up behind him in silence and place his gun close enough to Jack's neck for him to feel its presence, a sure sign that Jack was not going to live much longer, and he realised that his face had grown pale, both with shock and and with fear._

"_Alex, I..," Jack began, only to have the gun pushed hard into his neck, and he stopped. There was silence for a moment, and Alex wondered if he should have let Jack speak. Maybe he would say something that actually meant more than an attempt to save his own life?_

_Sighing so quietly that even he didn't hear himself, he closed his eyes, before shooting one, two, three, four bullets into Jack's body. The world around him grew eerily silent as he looked down at the dead body, a small pool of blood forming underneath Jack's neck and face._

_As he walked out of the alleyway and into the darkened streets, he could hear a distant wail of police sirens, but they seemed so far away that Alex knew he would be long gone before the cops got there. Noticing a sliver of light move in a nearby window, he decided not to hang around any longer and climbed into his car, and as he drove off, he told himself to forget that Jack Bauer ever existed._

_That was the dream that Alex had once, and he still remembered it some years later, as if he had only just woken up from that night's sleep._

**Oval Office, White House**

"Mr President, I have some news from CTU. They're planning a mission to locate Bauer," the same CTU bureaucrat from earlier announced on the phone, as Hayworth listened intently. He felt that the US government did not need to go after Jack as long as Jack could disappear, and if that meant reuniting with his family back home and adopting a new identity, that was something he could live with.

"Good, just make sure that they keep the Russians out of the loop with this, I don't want Moscow any more pissed at me than they already are," Hayworth replied.

"One more thing, Mr President. Director Clarke plans to have former CTU agent Alex Myers involved in the mission," the bureaucrat spoke, and although Hayworth had heard of Myers before – after all, he had pardoned Myers recently - he wasn't sure what the problem was.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?," Hayworth asked.

"Both, in a way. Good, in that Myers was a capable and intelligent agent. Bad, in that he has some history with Bauer that Clarke needs to keep in mind,"

"History, Mr Farrell? What sort of history?"

"Mr President, the reason why Alex Myers is a former agent is because he murdered one agent and then tried to murder Bauer in 2008. There's a lot of blood spilt in those two families, although Myers seems to have a lot of loyalty to Jack's daughter, as you know from when you pardoned him for saving Teri Bauer. You remember the California presidential primary for the Democrats back in 2002?," Farrell spoke.

"Sure, Bauer and CTU were involved deeply in the incidents that occurred that day, right?," Hayworth replied, recalling that dramatic day when former President Palmer was almost killed twice. It had dominated the news for much of that week, with Jack Bauer being hailed a hero for his actions.

"Well, Alex's sister was a mole within the agency, and when she tried to escape after being uncovered that night, she murdered Jack's wife," Farrell said.

"Really? Why would Alex Myers try to kill Jack, then?," Hayworth asked, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. It all seemed like a complex web that he as an outsider could never truly understand.

"On the night he was arrested, Alex Myers murdered Chloe O'Brien in order to prevent her from stopping a computer worm that his sister had implanted into the CTU system. The worm was defeated, Nina Myers was taken to CTU and attempted to escape. According to both Alex and Jack, Alex found Jack moments after he had killed Nina, and Alex tried to murder him, but was prevented from doing so by a couple of other agents," Farrell finished his explanation as Hayworth listened closely to the story of a dramatic feud. Whilst he had pardoned Myers himself, he had simply been told of the murder charge, and the attempted murder charge had seemingly vanished into thin air.

**CTU New York**

Peter had been informed of the team's arrival in Stuttgart, and now alls he had to do was keep in constant contact both with the team and with the President. He was tired but willing to override his natural urge to sleep to play his role as the middle man between the man at the top, and the team on the ground. Hayworth had taken a personal interest in the mission, and Peter knew that he had to make sure the plan went as smoothly as possible, although experience with others who had known Bauer told him that with Jack, things almost never went smoothly – in fact, they went as roughly as the Himalayas on a map of Asia.

"Mr President, they've received no new information from the German agents since the last time we spoke, but they're confident that Bauer can be found," he spoke via video phone to an equally tired Hayworth, who was hoping that the decision to both send CTU agents into a foreign country and to send Alex Myers along with them would not be a fatal decision, although he knew that if Myers and Bauer were to meet, there was potential for things to get violent very quickly.

"Well, if you do get anything new, make sure I know as soon as, I want to be kept up to date with this. I took a risk pardoning a murderer for a reason the public won't find out, and you're certainly taking a risk giving him a gun and sending him to find a man he once tried to kill," Hayworth replied.

"The pardon won't ever be public knowledge, Mr President, I assure you. Back when David Palmer was President, he pardoned Alex's sister on the same day she helped terrorists in an attempt to nuke Los Angeles. Now, things worked out OK there, but if they hadn't, that would have meant countless deaths being blamed on Palmer, and the complete and utter destruction of his career," Peter said, knowing that the pardon was known to very few people. The people working at the prison had simply been told that he was being transferred to a different jail for reasons of national security, whilst most CTU agents outside of New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles had no idea that Alex Myers was now out of jail.

**BND building, Stuttgart**

The CTU team had met with the BND agents, and now they were sat in a dark office building that was unofficially rented by BND for surveillance purposes. Theo Stoller sat down and looked over at Alex, knowing that he was someone who had once tried to kill Jack Bauer.

"You're Theo Stoller, right? You've met Jack before, I believe," Alex spoke, recalling something Cole had told him about on the plane. Scoffing, Theo looked away for a second, before returning his gaze.

"Yeah, I did, although I didn't try and kill him afterwards," Stoller replied, and Alex was about to respond when Cole came rushing into the room.

"We've located him! Some gang grabbed him off the street and took him to a building in an industrial park!," Cole announced, before running out of the room as fast as he had arrived.

**Tony's hideout, Stuttgart**

As Cole went around to approach Tony from the far side of the gloomy room, Alex stood and watched from the shadows in silence, listening in to the conversation, noticing where Tony stood and where Jack knelt. He had an uneasy feeling that the dream on the plane to Philadelphia, the one involving Tony, was almost a prophecy of the situation he found himself witnessing, and about to enter.

"I'm sorry, Jack, but it's all over," Tony spoke quietly, with a slight hint of regret that he may or may not have wanted Jack to hear, and lifted his gun slowly to aim it straight at Jack's forehead. Deciding to make his own presence known, Alex moved silently out of the shadows slightly, his body still half-shrouded in darkness. He cocked his gun, and caught both Tony and Jack's attention, the looks of surprise on each face almost identical.

"Hello, Tony, Jack," Alex spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, his gun aimed at Tony's head.

"Who let you out of your cage?," Tony almost hissed at Alex, who was keeping his eyes solely on Tony, knowing that he might have to shoot dead his former friend. Alex moved his eyes quickly to Cole, before looking straight back at Tony.

"He did," Alex replied, and both Jack and Tony looked to see Cole, who was also aiming his gun directly at Tony, although his eyes were trained on Jack's face, Jack himself astonished and feeling almost betrayed by the revelation.

"Cole, what the hell are you doing? Alex Myers is a dangerous man, and cannot be trusted!," Jack spoke with a similar tone to that of Tony, and the fact that Alex was, or at least seemed to be, working with Cole caused some confusion in his mind. Had Cole betrayed his country, or was it Alex who had changed sides? Jack didn't know which one to believe, although he felt a preference for the latter. Not just because it would mean that Cole had indeed not betrayed his country, but because it would mean that his former friend was somehow redeeming himself. The thought that Alex was somehow working with Tony also went through his mind, but Jack thought it was a distant third in the list of possibilities.

"He wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could trust him, Jack," Cole replied, his eyes still focussed on Tony.

"What's that supposed to mean? Why are you so sure that you can trust him?," Jack said, his gaze now on Alex. Why would Cole Ortiz, a CTUNYC agent, trust a former agent who had been behind bars for ten years? Then it dawned on him, and he looked furious. He swung his head quickly to stare at Cole.

"Tell me you didn't, Cole...tell me you didn't pardon him?," Jack spoke, and his face had grown pale. The thought of Alex being pardoned, cleared of his crimes was something that Jack just could not comprehend. What had Alex given them in return?

"Jack, he didn't even want the pardon, but what he did-," Cole began to explain, but Jack cut him off.

"What the hell could Alex Myers do for you, Cole? What?," Jack yelled, forgetting that he was restrained and kneeling down, and even Tony stepped back slightly.

"I saved Teri's life, that's what I did, Jack," Alex replied, and both Jack and Tony looked at him, amazed. Both knew who Teri was, but neither would have guessed that Alex would somehow be saving Teri's life, and that Cole would somehow be involved.

"You did what? How?," Jack spoke, his voice quieter, his eyes and face moving between Alex and Cole a few times, before stopping to gaze at Cole.

"We needed someone who knew you, Jack, someone who could impersonate you enough to convince the people who kidnapped your granddaughter that he was Jack Bauer, in order to save her. He did it brilliantly, Jack," Cole replied. The tension in the room would almost have evaporated, if it weren't for the fact that three guns were aimed at various heads. Alex looked over at Tony, who seemed close to pulling the trigger, and he knew that he had to make a decision, even if that decision was a fatal one. Then a thought came to his head, but although he was concerned that it might trigger anger in either Jack or Tony, he knew that he had to give it a shot.

"We're more alike than you might think, you know? Teri, Nina, Michelle, we've all lost someone we loved, we've all felt anger at their deaths and we all wanted to act on that anger," Alex spoke quietly, knowing that his words probably had little positive effect, and why would they? It was surely obvious to Jack, and to Tony, that all three of them had suffered the loss of a wife or a sister. All of them had sought revenge for those deaths, but only one had found out for sure that killing the one who had murdered their loved one would not bring back their loved one.

"Where was all this pop psychology crap when you murdered Chloe and tried to murder me, Alex?," Jack spoke, his voice bitter and angry. He was not seeing the point of talking about similarities, about reasons why they were all connected, as if they weren't already connected enough by blood and death. Sighing, Alex noticed that Tony was looking at Jack and unable to see him, and he fired a bullet into Tony's shoulder, sending him crashing to the floor, the quick action acting as a real anti-climax to the dramatic tension of the past few moments.

"What the hell?," Tony yelled, and he lunged at his gun, only for Cole to kick it away. Alex walked over to Jack and crouched down near him.

"Before I remove your restraints, Jack, I want to know something," Alex spoke. He could almost feel Jack's eyes burning into him, and it was Jack who guessed what Alex wanted to know.

"You want to know if I murdered Nina," Jack replied. Did he even know that himself? He was tired, he was a heroin addict and he was angry at Nina and everyone else who was threatening to hurt innocents, including Kim. He would swear on his own daughter's life that he had seen Nina try and reach her gun, but was even he fully convinced that she could have even took hold of it, never mind used it?

"Jack, I watched you shoot my sister in cold blood at least three times, I could see no reason why she was a threat to you, and then you just seemed so unconcerned that you had wiped out someone's entire existence, that Teri would never have wanted you to avenge her. If I had arrived a few seconds earlier, if Kim had never risked her life to go after Nina, maybe things would be different, but there's too many maybes, and they stretch back far before Teri's death," Alex said, his eyes looking between Jack and Tony, who was himself kneeling unrestrained, his bloodied arm and pale face the only signs that he had been shot.

"I don't think I could ever give you an answer that would satisfy you, Alex," Jack spoke. He wondered what Alex had thought about in jail, what had been running through his mind every day he had spent behind bars? Alex was about to say something, but the sound of a gun and Jack falling backwards in pain as the bullet entered his lung distracted him. Rushing to adopt a defensive position, he swore loudly.

"I thought we had cleared the building, Cole?," Alex shouted as they scanned the other side of the room for signs of the shooter, a difficult enough task without the possibility of both Tony and Jack bleeding to death from their respective gunshot wounds.

"I was told that the building was clear!," Cole replied, hoping that it was indeed one of Tony's men, but he had both experience of and heard stories of moles and infiltrators, and he pleaded to himself that the shooter was not one of their own agents. Even though it had been a couple of years since Dana's death, he was still suffering the aftershocks of betrayal.

"Whoever you are, come out with your hands up! The building is surrounded by US and German federal agents!," Alex shouted, before repeating what he had said in slightly broken German, a language he had not used in some years, and his voice sounded alien to him for a second. He wished that the room at least had more than the one poor source of light, a long and thin fluorescent light that was obviously going to fail at any minute. His tired eyes looked around the darkness at the far end of the room, searching for the shooter, the room itself now eerily quiet except for the occasional groan from Jack, who was lying on the floor, his eyes staring straight up, his consciousness about to fade away.

"Jack, try and stay awake!," Cole yelled, his eyes and gun trained on the darkness from where the shot had come from. It wasn't exactly the way anyone wanted it, and he knew that unless they could somehow eliminate the threat of this shadowy enemy, that Jack and possibly Tony would die of their wounds long before they could be treated. Noticing movement on the other side of the room, both Cole and Alex shot at the shadowy figure, which crumpled to the floor. Slowly, they moved closer, their guns still trained on the person, unsure as to whether he or she was alone, or if there was another gunman waiting to start shooting as soon as they approached. Reaching the body, Cole and Alex made sure the area was clear of anyone else, before Cole knelt down next to the body and measured the now weak pulse of the young man.

"He's alive, but he'll need treatment as soon as possible or he'll be dead within hours," Cole spoke quietly. He found the bullet wounds – one to the right arm, one through the left lung, and grimaced. The young man looked exactly that – young, probably no more than twenty five. Alex turned around to look at Tony, who was staring at them with half-open eyes.

"Who is he, Tony? Why is he working for you?," Alex asked, and Tony shrugged, which caused him to wince as his injury screamed in protest at the movement.

"His name's David, and he's doing it simply for the money. Apart from that, I know little about him. Is he dead?," Tony replied. He was telling the truth, mostly, although he knew a little bit more about David. He knew that David was a young man who had gotten involved in bad crowds ever since he was a teenager, and in some convoluted way, he had managed to get himself involved in terrorism, and he had accepted the life of a terrorist a long time ago. Tony wondered if David's story had any similarity with that of Nina's, but he couldn't see Nina being involved with the wrong crowds. She had been an intelligent, hard-working person, who had spent years at college and university, who had worked for several high-profile organisations. Maybe her path into terrorism was one paved with greed and lack of concern for human life, as if she changed into a monster over the years. Whether that change was something she encouraged within her herself, or whether it gradually evolved, Tony didn't know and didn't particularly care.

At that point, the CTU team poured into the room, Tony being lifted up and marched away, whilst some of the agents checked on the unconscious Jack and David, and as this flow of people rushed through the room, Alex watched them, watched the surreal scene of two former friends, one lying close to death and the other bleeding and handcuffed. Both of them had been on the run over the past few years – one from jail, the other from two governments.


	15. Epilogue

_A few months later..._

**Philadelphia, Pennsylvania**

Although it had taken some getting used to, Jack had settled well into his new identity, and as Dennis Sutherland, he was now living happily near Kim and her family. Some minor plastic surgery had transformed his face, and CTU had been satisfied enough that his life was not in danger that the monitoring had ended.

Walking up to the school gates, where he would be meeting his granddaughter, he felt proud of how he and his family had survived, how they had managed to regain some sense of happy normality into their lives. Teri had been told to call her Grandpa by his first name, rather than his title, which had confused her at first, but now she was a natural at it.

"Dennis!," Teri shouted as she ran across the playground, a huge grin on her face. Jack held out his hands to catch her, scooping her up as she reached him.

"Hi Annie, ready to go home?," Jack asked her, using her cover name, as he walked back towards his car, which in typical Jack style was a jet black SUV. He always tried to hide the sadness that he felt when he said home – to him, home had been Los Angeles, home had been with his wife and daughter, and only now did he once more have a real home to go to.

_In the late summer of the early 1990s, life was good for the Bauer family. Jack had just started a new job at CTU, Teri's career as an interior designer was going well, and Kim had just started school. The hot Californian sun beamed down on Jack as he climbed out of his car and took a look around for his daughter, who had been so nervous that morning._

"_Daddy!." Kim yelled, before throwing herself into him, causing him to laugh. For some reason, he just knew that the first day had gone well._

"_I take it the day went well?," Jack asked regardless, to which Kim simply nodded. As they walked back to his car, he was glad to leave behind the world of espionage, and savour the world of being a father._

**Federal Correctional Institute, Herlong, California**

Where one former CTU agent had once been held, another took his place, and in his cell, Tony sat on the edge of his bunk and wondered just how different things could have been. Sentenced to life without parole, with a possible extradition to Germany to face further charges, Tony knew that he would be going nowhere fast.

Looking outside, he could see the same fence he had seen before, and he could see the wall that he and Alex had sat against all of those years ago. It had been a strange experience to meet Alex in prison, and he had always thought, once he had been released the first time, that he would never go to jail again, and that Alex would never be free again, but here he was. He hadn't seen Alex since the rescue in Germany, and he had no idea where Alex had gone. His best guess was Chicago, back to where he, and Tony, were from.

_After months of incarceration as a traitor, Tony had finally been freed from jail, but his life was in ruins. He had lost his job and he had lost Michelle. He had an urge to call his friends, but he didn't think any of them would want to associate with him – Jack was across the country in Washington, almost everyone else rarely socialised with him outside of work, Alex was still in jail. Even his own family seemed distant towards him, and that hurt him the most. Family was important to him, and he had even started to think of starting one with Michelle, before he was arrested. _

_As he made it home, he unlocked the door for the first time in months, although he knew that Michelle would have been there a couple of times in order to pick up her things, and he reminded himself that the house was empty, that no one was going to greet him, and no one was going to walk through the door after him. Slumping down on the couch, he smiled slightly as he spotted his Cubs mug on the coffee table. Even when all of the big things seemed to be in constant change, the small things always seemed to stay the same._

**New Okavango School, Sangala**

Now that the rebels had been removed and the government restored, the country was rebuilding itself and coming to terms with the aftermath. The school were Jack had once worked with his old friend Carl Benton had been ruined by the fighting, and it required a lot of work from a small group of American aid workers, who had been tasked with the revival of the school for war orphans, to rebuild.

"Be careful over there, we still have to clear the minefield," Alex spoke, watching as another aid worker slowly made their way through a small field, before returning to the work of painting a door. He felt pride at what his work would help to achieve, but he also felt sadness that the work Benton had done there had been wiped out so easily by the conflict. He looked over at the main building, which was an impressive wooden structure, painted in bright colours, and imagined the time to come when children would be using the building to learn. A Sangalan flag flew from a flagpole in front of the building, the colours looking impressive in the sunshine as it flew weakly in what little breeze there was.

Suddenly, the peacefulness was shattered as an explosion ripped through the air. Turning around quickly, Alex looked to see what exactly had happened, hoping that someone hadn't stepped on a landmine or worse, that the rebels were attempting another coup.

"Sorry, everyone, should have warned you! We're just blowing up some old landmines!," yelled a voice with a thick Texan accent from nearby. Alex, whose subconscious had made him grip the brush a little too tightly after the explosion, returned to his work, his heart rate slowly returning to normal.

_As the car sped towards San Jose, Alex tried not think of the bombing, but it was proving difficult. He tried not to think of the rubble crushing people, the patches of fresh blood, the cries of the injured and shocked. They had had so little warning of the imminent attack, he thought to himself, ironically for a counter-terrrorism agency. He remembered managing to get out of the main building, staggering into the parking lot, suddenly unsure of where he was, or even what had just happened._

"_You OK?," Kim had asked, seemingly noticing the look on Alex's face. He made a quick check to see if Megan was asleep, and nodded without certainty._

"_Yeah, I guess. Just thinking a bit too much about this morning," he had replied. He knew that he wouldn't feel as bad as he really did, if Nina just hadn't been involved. Somehow, even though she was involved not only in the bombing, but in the threat to the city, he still hung onto his love for her. He willed what was left of the good Nina to overthrow the bad Nina who had taken over, even if just for a few hours, to help stop the bomb._


End file.
